


The Magic of a Mage

by AmberLynn2424



Category: Under - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alpha Timeline, Author needs help with tags, Blueberry gets hurt, Everyone is here and they're happy about it, F/M, Mage!Reader, Magic rules, PTSD, Reader has been in war, Suicide, Suicide for Terror, Terrorist Groups, War, War Stories, like ALOT
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2020-12-24 01:44:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 39,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21091334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmberLynn2424/pseuds/AmberLynn2424
Summary: The Reader was a normal human when monsters emerge from Mt. Ebott. Five years later, she is separated from her family and barely surviving on a day to day basis. She is a Green Mage, acquired by the state, forced into the duty of rescuing those around her. She doesn't hate her job.She hates that's it's forced upon her.Blueberry had been on his morning jog when he stumbled upon the scene of a human about to commit suicide. Despite his efforts, the human succeeds and it causes Blueberry to go into shock. It's the Reader's job to help Blueberry deal with his trama. Too bad there are politics involved, mucking up your job.TLDR: Blue gets hurt, Reader heals him and ends up in a skeletal pile.





	1. A Whole New World

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: This fic does have a story arc concerning a terrorist group that uses SUICIDE as a weapon. Please do not read if this makes you uncomfortable!

The day was as normal as any other.

The sunlight moved through the window of your bedroom, shining on your face, making you grimace as you woke. Your parents moved downstairs, fixing breakfast while your father’s booming laugh reached your ears. You smiled softly as you rolled over in your bed, preparing yourself mentally for another day of school.

You showered, dressed in your uniform, grabbed your school bag and made your way downstairs. You sat at breakfast, chatting idly with your mother and father as your brother and sister made their way to the table.

Your mother allowed you each a cup of coffee that morning to better prepare you for the day’s exams. The eggs were sunnyside up, the bacon crispy, and grits, as they should be, gritty and full of butter.

You had dreams of being an artist, a writer, and playing the guitar and violin regularly. You dreamt of a cabin in the woods where you could draw, write, and play with little interruption. You dreamt of starry nights, the occasional drive into town for supplies, and the calmness of being entirely on your own. You dreamt of your sister visiting when her own dreams of being a doctor in the city suffocated her and she needed a break at your cabin. You dreamt of your brother borrowing your cabin for a honeymoon with his wife. You dreamt of your parents living with you into their old age, dying peacefully surrounded by woods and the people they loved the most.

You never knew what the future would bring, but you chose to enjoy your dreams. Lately, you had this feeling everything would change. You weren’t sure how and you didn’t think it for the best. Everyone told you to relax. Everything would be fine. What big change could come anyways?

That morning, on the news that played on the little TV in the kitchen as you ate with your family and played a daydream in your head, you got your answer.

Monsters emerged from Mt. Ebott.

\-----------------

5 Years Later

\----------------

You hated working double shifts.

You sat in the back of the ambulance, feeling the motorized beast falling into potholes and bumping harshly up, again and again, making you feel sick. After the paperwork from this run however, you should be able to get home to your apartment. Maybe have a cup of tea with the sunrise.

The ambulance stopped and you shoved the doors open and ran out. You check the immediate area before running over to the monster crouched by the alleyway.

“My name is (Y/n), Green Mage 4824. I’m here to help you. Do I have your permission to treat you?” You started quickly.

The monster, a skeleton monster with a blue bandana wrapped around his neck, stared up at you for a moment before he nodded. He was crouched down, his elbows on his knees and was holding his head in his hands before looking up at you.

You felt relieved.

Most monsters refused treatment of any sort and they could dust because of it. They were afraid of you.

You didn’t blame them.

You were a mage after all.

You crouch down in front of the skeleton monster, moving your satchel to the side of you. You take off your thick gloves and touch one of his hands.

_ Fear, disbelief, horror. _

He was going into shock from whatever he saw in the alley. Your partner, the one driving, had already run down there. He hadn’t called for you so you continued your work on the skeleton.

“I need to stand you up, hold onto my arms okay?” You gently take his lower arms in your hands and he held onto yours.

You balanced him as he stood and you helped him lean against the wall. Looking over him, he wasn’t hurt. You still had his emotional state to worry about, however.

You’ve seen monsters go into shock and Fall Down as if it were nothing.

What seems to help is closeness, you find. It goes against your rule book, but if it works, it works.

You stepped closer and he leaned onto you, emotions running wildly. His eye lights were shrunk and moving from side to side. He was terrified.

You allow him to wrap an arm around your shoulders and you wrapped an arm around his upper back. You held onto his wrist and made it look as if you were simply keeping him up rather than giving this stranger a half hug.

“I would like to call someone for you. Do you have a phone?”

The skeleton nodded, reaching into his pocket with his free hand and pulling out a baby blue colored smartphone. He thumbed through it for a moment before handing it to you. On the screen, he had pulled up a contact.

**Brother**

You pressed the call button and pressed the phone to your ear. As the phone rang, you reached in your soul and pulled at your magic without a second thought. The hand on his back started to glow a soft green as you filtered in some healing magic. The skeleton pushed his head into your shoulder, his own shoulders softly shaking as you did your best to soothe him.

Healing magic had many effects. For mages to use healing magic, however, they had to call on passionate memories. For Green Mages, such as yourself, it didn’t have to be nearly as passionate. You had many fond memories from your childhood and called on those calm moments of being surrounded or simply near loved ones. Despite this skeleton not having any wounds, you called onto your magic as if to heal him and allowed him some respite from his feelings of terror and showed him those calming feelings. It wasn’t manipulative in any sort, any monster could easily push away your magic and not accept your healing or feelings.

You were so grateful that he allowed you to pass on these feelings.

Perhaps he was as desperate for a calm moment as you were to help him.

“blue? brother, where are you? you should have been back from your run by now?” A voice said through the phone, pulling you from your thoughts.

“My name is (Y/n), Green Mage number 4824. Your brother was found by an alley on Twilight Drive. He is safe and healthy, physically. Your assistance is needed-”

You paused as a strange noise came through the phone.

“brother!” You heard someone yell and you look to your left to see a taller skeleton in just cargo shorts and a black tank top running toward the two of you.

You hung up the call and stopped your magic as the skeleton ran up to his brother. He touched the skeleton still leaning on you, who you now know to be Blue, on his face. Blue looked up at his brother and moved, clinging to him instead of you.

You watched the two brothers hug for a moment before someone tapped your shoulder.

“Please don’t leave, Blue still needs to give a statement to the police,” You say to them and hand the taller skeleton the phone.

You turn and see your partner’s grim face and sigh softly to yourself.

You went into the alleyway with him, leaving a police officer with the two skeletons.

You were a Green Mage, acquired by the state. Being a Green Mage, specifically a tier eight Green Mage and thus a boss level, meant that you were also an empath. You could pick up on feelings from individuals and areas if you chose to.

You were purposely blocking out the feelings from this area in particular.

There was a human body on the ground, laying flat on his back. Blood still trailing from his temple. Blood was splattered on the right wall and you didn’t envy whoever would have to scrub the old bricks.

“Looks like another attack from the Organized Blood Front,” A man said in a police uniform.

This scene was starting to become pretty standard for you. A human, commiting suicide in some way in front of a monster with nothing to identify them other than a plain t-shirt that had three letters.

OBF.

It hurts a monster’s psyche terribly. Some have even dusted after witnessing this act. The fact that Blue was holding himself together so well gave you hope. He was at least responsive.

You’ve had three monster’s dust on your hands from three other separate attacks.

From what the police could tell, these attacks were designed to attempt to scare monster’s back underground. Most likely a willing volunteer based group but strangely, all the humans they used were normal, everyday people. The FBI was working on the case even but there was limited information. All they knew was that these humans were committing suicide by choice. There were no signs of coercion or torture to force them to do it.

Standing next to the police officer, in a lighter version of his uniform, was a Justice Mage. You could tell from the difference in uniform and the patch on both of his arms. The patch consists of a symbol of a judge’s gavel in yellow. On his neck, was a tattoo of a similar caliber, which meant he had tried to run from his state-assigned duties at one point or another. 

It made you want to itch the green syringe tattoo on your neck.

“How is the monster?” The Justice Mage asked you.

“All things considered, he’s going to live. He’s in shock and he’s not going to come out of it for a while. He either needs to go to the Comfort Home for treatment or, at the very least, he needs in-home treatment, whichever works best,” You stated.

Your partner, a paramedic named John, stared at you for a moment with a frown.

“You say that about all the monsters who see this shit,” John scoffed.

You didn’t like John. The few times you tried to read his emotions, it was always the same. Bitter, Jealous, Angry. He was a petty man you had the displeasure of working with. He cared little for monsters. You had a feeling he hadn’t cared much for humans before Monsters had emerged from Ebott anyways though.

You much preferred to work with your other partner, Cissy. She didn’t work doubles, however. So, normally, you got stuck with John for your second shift.

“These attacks are designed to damage a Monster’s psyche and cause them to Fall Down. He needs treatment to ensure he doesn’t fall. I will not leave someone to fall because you think it inconveniences you,” You say before thinking it through.

“You want to say that again you Green bitch?!” John made a move towards you, puffing his chest out as he did. 

The police officer moved in between the two of you.

“Enough John, you want to be suspended again?” The officer said.

John glared at you for a moment before standing down.

The officer sighed quietly.

“Are you sure he needs treatment before he gives a statement?” The officer looked at you.

“Yes, we need to act quickly. The sooner he gets into treatment, the better his chances are of talking at all after this,” The few monsters that didn’t fall, rarely spoke after these attacks. You weren’t entirely sure of the reason why you thought it might have been because of the sheer trauma or perhaps the attackers got the monsters to say something specifically before killing themselves that left them speechless.

“Go, now then. I don’t want another attack with a less than detailed report attached to it. The chief is up everyone’s ass about this,” The officer turned back, calling those he needed on his phone to come to process the scene.

You moved out of the alley and walked to the two brothers while John stomped off to the ambulance.

“If you would please come with me. I’d like to take the two of you to the Comfort Home. I would like him to get treatment,” You look between the two of them, the taller brother seemed uncomfortable with this idea, “Unless your home is suitable for in-home treatment. We still need to go to the Comfort Home to arrange that, but if it suits you both better it can be arranged.”

Blue was shaking against his brother.

“he doesn’t need treatment,” The taller brother said, glaring at you, staring at the tattoo on your neck, “i’ll take him home and treat him my...self.”

The taller brother slowed his words as Blue looked up at him. Blue moved unsteadily, his arm shaking as he looked to you and reached out to you.

You took his hand and rubbed your thumb over the back of his skeletal hand. After a moment of silence, you looked back up at the brother.

“Please, I’m begging you, allow the Comfort Home to treat him. I don’t want to see another Monster fall. I don’t doubt your bond or your abilities, it's just that we are specifically trained for this. Please, let us help.”

You weren’t supposed to do this. You were supposed to keep your mouth shut if someone refused treatment and carry on to the next. You were breaking an unspoken rule by continuing this conversation.

He knew this, you could tell by the look in the brother’s eye. He had been wishing for you to stay silent so he could take his brother home. His eyes wandered down to where Blue was holding onto your hand.

The brother nodded quietly and you lead them both to the back of the ambulance. You sat Blue on the bed attached to the side and quickly opened the cabinet beside him to pull out a shock blanket. You grabbed the standard orange one but stopped. There was a blue one just under it. You had left a blue blanket for yourself to sleep whenever you and Cissy made rounds at night and you had a moment to rest.

You really weren’t supposed to…

But it was freshly clean, you had laundered it just this morning. You touched the blanket. Happy dreams, and thoughts from when you had been reminiscing about times before.

You pull out the blue blanket instead and wrapped it around Blue’s shoulders as his brother sat next to him. Blue pulled it to himself eagerly, hugging himself in the blanket. His brother wrapped his arms around Blue as you pulled the doors closed and knocked on the back wall so that John knew he could start driving.

As usual, he took off right away and nearly sent you flying. You caught yourself and sighed softly before taking your normal seat. You pulled out a file and began writing in what had happened.

“What is his legal name?” You asked after a moment, looking up at the brothers.

“blue  helvetica,” His brother said.

“Yours?”

“stretch helvetica.”

You nod and begin filling out the report again with their names.

“Have either of you been to the Comfort Home before? Or know anyone who has been?”

“no.”

A shiver ran through you. You were tired from working fifteen hours so far and your normal block had dropped. The utter distrust from Stretch hit you suddenly. You put your block up and continued with your paperwork.

\-------------

The ambulance pulled up to the Comfort Home. You put the almost completed file in your bag and opened the back doors of the ambulance. Stretch helped his brother out of the ambulance and you started to guide them into the Comfort Home when John grabbed your upper arm.

“Make it quick, we gotta go soon for rounds,” John frowned at you.

You made no move to pull away from John, it only made him more angry with you.

“I’ve already worked my double, you’ll have to stop at the hospital.”

“Bullshit you’ve worked a double-”

“Talk to George at the hospital then, I’ve got work to do.” You motioned to the brothers.

John glared at you, making you grateful for your block. You look pointedly at his hand on your arm then up at him. He gripped you tighter before getting in the ambulance and slamming his driver door.

You rubbed your arm as you walked past the brothers. You were surprised when you felt a hand on your shoulder.

Blue had reached out and touched your shoulder. You didn’t need to be an empath to see that he was worried about you.

“It’s okay, I’m okay. John just gets riled up,” You touch Blue’s hand before holding it and leading him inside.

You missed Stretch’s shocked look when Blue left his hold to follow you instead.

The automatic doors opened and you looked back at Stretch expectantly. He could see how tired you were. He frowned, reminding himself that humans only cared for themselves. You just wanted to drop them off and go home probably.

  
  
  


You led the brothers up to the front desk and handed the woman working there the file. Blue kept the blanket tightly around his shoulders as you spoke to the woman for a moment. Stretch stayed right behind his brother, glaring at some of the humans walking around.

You could tell Stretch didn’t like this place, but this was best for Blue. You were sure of it.

You took a room key offered to you and led the brothers off to the right and down a hall. Unlike a hospital, the Comfort Home was designed for monsters. The walls were colorful rather than a sterile white, and it constantly smelled like someone was baking cookies.

Blue’s room was comfortable. A blue couch by the window and a plasma TV on top of a dresser. The bed was made up like you would find in one’s home. Nothing about it seemed like a hospital and there was no expense spared. The mattress on the bed was more comfortable than the one in the dingy apartment you lived in, you hear from other Green Mages that worked here.

You led Blue to the bed and urged him to sit on it.

“If you’d like, I can stay with you until your assigned Mage comes,” You offered.

“we don’t need you, thanks,” Stretch’s voice was tense as he dismissed you.

You couldn’t help but feel disappointed at Stretch’s tone. You were eager to get home and sleep, but you were worried about Blue still.

But you had no other choice than to listen to Stretch. He was a full citizen with rights. You were not.

You nodded to him and squeezed Blue’s hand reassuringly and left the key on the bedside table before you turned to leave. You wanted to ask Stretch if it would be okay for you to visit on your next shift.

You didn’t think you could take the disappointment of him saying no without crying in your fragile state, so you left quietly instead.

With only a few more minutes left on your shift, you went to the Mage’s circle, a simple room in the middle of the hall where Mages that worked here were allowed to do paperwork, have coffee, and keep an eye on everyone in the rooms.

“Need help for a few minutes?” You asked as you entered.

The Green Mage, a woman with swirly red hair, gave you a once over and took your hand.

“Come here, you need to sit.” She said quickly, “You’re exhausted!”

You didn’t fight her as you sat in the rolling office chair.

“Just need some coffee and I’ll be fine. I only have a few minutes left anyways,” You try to reassure her. 

She quickly poured you a cup of coffee.

“How many doubles have you worked this week?”

“This is my third in a row. You heard about Josie didn’t you?” You ask as you take the mug of coffee gratefully.

Josie had been like you. A Green Mage that worked with paramedics. She had been caught in a firefight while working on helping a monster and died. The monster fell only days later, too traumatized from the experience to keep going in this tough world.

Green Mages weren’t easy to find so all the Green Mages that took rounds on the paramedic team were working doubles to cover Josie’s shifts.

“Yeah, that poor girl. I’m lucky I get to work here. I’m worried it won’t be long until they lower the tier range for the paramedic team though,” The woman said quietly, “It’s still tiered seven through nine right?”

“They lowered it last year,” You said quietly after a sip, “It’s tier six to nine now.”

The woman cursed quietly. She stood straighter and you blinked at her confused.

“Sitting around on the job again (Y/n)?” George said with a smirk from the opening to the room.

Oh, that’s why she got nervous.

You looked at your superior, the only tenth tier Green Mage, George.

“Perhaps. It’s what three doubles will do to you eventually,” You sip your coffee quietly while the woman gives you a look.

She’s surprised when George starts laughing. He claps you on the shoulder in a goodnaturedly way.

George was...off. Very off. You weren’t sure what it was. He hid it, but not well. Despite being in the tenth tier, he wasn’t very good at controlling his block and hiding his emotions from others.

George smiled at you, then the woman.

“Did you hear what she did?” He asked her. The woman quickly shook her head, “She kept a monster from falling and got him here in one piece after an OBF attack! We may have a chance to actually save him this time! I hope for a full recovery!”

“Have you looked at his file already?” You asked George.

“Yes, I’m going to treat him myself. It seems only fitting,” George smirked.

Right, he didn’t want to help Blue, he wanted to add another achievement to his list. You gripped your mug tightly, feeling suffocated by his pride.

It made you sick.

You were scared for Blue. You hoped he wouldn’t pick up on George’s real intent.

“He’s very delicate right now,” You say slowly, “Please be gentle with him.”

George had a very different view of things. When things changed, when statuses changed, George’s hardly did. He had grown up in a rich family though the youngest and little prospect of inheriting much, had little empathy before he had become a Mage. Now, he was important since he was the only Mage in his family, and had only a drive to beat the expectations of his superiors. It had made him hungry for more power and growth.

There were times when you honestly couldn’t figure out how he was a Green Mage.

“Go ahead and head out (Y/n), my driver will take you home and I rescheduled so you’ll be off tonight. You need the rest,” He looked at you expectantly.

Like the good Mage you were, you bowed your head to him.

“Thank you very much, I’ll use the time wisely,” You said softly.

You put your mug in the sink and walked out with George. George went to Blue’s room while you went to the front exit. As he promised, there was a car waiting for you.

\------------------

There was a pounding on your door. You groaned loudly in your bed and turned over.

Seven pm.

You had slept almost ten hours. You wanted ten more but someone kept pounding on the door. With another groan, you stand and pull on a muted color sweatshirt, the patches sewn into the arms, and walked to the door. 

“Hello?” You say as you opened it.

“Mr. George is in need of your assistance regarding a patient. There is no need for the proper dress or any of your things, please come with me,” You recognize the driver from this morning.

You were confused but grabbed your work bag while slipping on your shoes despite what he said and quickly followed him down to the car.

“What’s happening?” You asked confused.

“His patient’s brother refused treatment from Mr. George. An hour ago, Mr. George produced a paper of written consent and had the patient sign it. Mr. George started treatment and the patient has not reacted well to it so Mr. George sent me to fetch you,” The driver said, speeding through a red light.

Judging from his driving, you were guessing that ‘not reacted well’ was not what he truly meant. You bowed your head, begging the stars that Blue would be okay.

\---------

You ran into the Comfort Home and ran right to Blue’s room. You had been hoping for screaming, crying, anything. Hell, you had ‘prayed’ for it.

Blue was catatonic, worse than he had been early this morning. His eye lights were pinpricks and disturbingly still. His brother was holding him and trying to get any reaction out of him. There were some other skeletons you didn’t know in the room.

George was sitting at a table, head in his hands.

You grabbed George by his fancy jacket sleeve and pulled him outside the room. You shut the door and glared at him.

“What did you do to him!?”

“He wasn’t speaking so I attempted to guide him through the memory of-” George started, frowning at you.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! Did he know you were trying to do that?!” You yelled.

Your heart, no something deeper inside you, hurt seeing Blue like that.

“He signed a written consent form-”

“Did you tell him!?” You yelled again.

George was silent for a minute.

“You should think better than to talk to me like that-”

“Fuck you!”  _ Oh, shit, please stop talking,  _ “All you give a shit about is your political gain! I shouldn’t have fucking left him in your care! Tenth tier doesn’t mean shit when you’re shit!”

You went back into the room and closed the door, locking it.

The reality of what you just did settle on your shoulders.

George would have you reprimanded at least, at worst he could work you to near-death or even have you thrown in jail for insubordination.

You could feel eyes on your back and you took in a breath. That didn’t matter right now, you had to help Blue.

You turned, determination like fire in your eyes, ignoring the other skeleton’s heavy gazes as you walked over to Blue.

You knelt in front of him and Stretch.

“May I treat him?” You looked up with Stretch with begging eyes. You had to follow protocol, you wouldn’t, you refused to force Blue into more treatment he didn’t want.

Stretch eyed you over for a moment, glaring at first, small tears in his eyes. He looked at Blue for a moment before he nodded.

You quickly took Blue’s hands in yours and breathed out.

You were allowed to help.

You didn’t have to pull at your magic, it moved naturally. Your hands started to glow a bright green and closed your eyes, focusing on the calm sounds you heard once at the ocean.

Blue closed his eyes.

You remembered the sounds of your childhood friends laughing as you played.

You thought of Christmas mornings, after opening presents, having a sugary breakfast with your family.

You thought of those times you had, playing violin and feeling proud of completing a piece.

You recalled the calm of those times you went hiking by yourself, surrounded by birds and trees.

You reminded yourself of those moments when you hugged your father, your mother, your siblings.

Without thinking, you moved, eyes still closed. You moved onto the bed and sat beside Blue, pulling him to your chest and resting one hand on his temple and the other on his chest.

You felt tears flow from your eyes as you missed your family.

Blue let out a shuddering gasp. He wrapped an arm around your back and held onto you tightly.

You remembered more of your family. 

The aunts and uncles you spoke with over spontaneous dinners.

The car rides you took with your brother when he got his jeep.

Those moments you held your sister while she cried over a boy who broke her heart.

You missed them dearly. You missed them so much, every part of you hurt.

You had to stop. You couldn’t think like this while trying to bring Blue back.

You opened your eyes to refocus yourself on Blue and were surprised to see him staring up at your, his eye lights a normal size. He had blue tears trailing down his face.

He jumped and hugged you tightly, wrapping his arms around your neck. You wrapped him up in a hug and let yourself feel the pain of losing your family.

After a few minutes, you realized that what had brought Blue back from that catatonic state had been your shared feelings of missing your beloved family.

You hugged him tighter.

\---------------

Only minutes later, you had Blue settled in his bed, the covers pulled up to his hips as he sat up, and tucked your blue blanket around his shoulders.

“I think some tea sounds nice, what about you?”

Blue gave you a very small smile and nodded.

You couldn’t describe your relief seeing the small response.

“All of you?” You look back to Stretch and the other skeletons.

Stretch stood next to the bed, staring at you as if you had fixed his world. The other two, one in a blue hoodie that looked strikingly like Blue stared at you confused. As if you were a puzzle to figure out. The other skeleton, who also looked like Blue, wore a black jacket with yellow fuzz around the hood. You could tell he was a Fell monster. They were easy to distinguish. He was also giving you a confused and almost angry look. You could feel it wasn’t directed at you.

“That’d be nice,” Stretch said for them.

You nodded and got up from the bed. You touched Blue’s shoulder.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” You gave him another smile before leaving the room.

You shut the door quietly behind you and rubbed your hands over your face, wiping away leftover tears.

“How did it go?” George glared at you still. There were two other men standing beside him.

One had a patch of Integrity, a dark blue scale, the other a patch with a yellow gavel for Justice.

You knew you were in trouble.

“I have to make tea for them-”

It seemed it was George’s turn to cut you off.

“Vanessa, make tea for room 205,” He called. 

The red-haired woman from this morning left the Mages circle quickly. The woman moved to you.

“Some food as well?” She asked.

“Please, I’m worried that none of them have eaten today. Something light like sandwiches would be great,” You told her, “Thank you.”

“It’s no trouble,” She smiled at you and quickly went on her way.

You looked back at the three in front of you. George’s face was red that Vanessa had spoken to you, rather than him, to clarify the order. The Integrity had a big smile on his face, and the Justice looked very amused.

“Come with us,” Integrity said, leading you to the Mages circle.

You took a seat in the room, watching for Vanessa. You didn’t want to leave Blue for long. 

The other three took a seat.

“I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Gregory, please call me Greg. I’m a tier ten Integrity,” He stated.

“Nathan, tier ten Justice,” The other said.

“You’ve...come to judge me then yes?” You looked back at the door.

How would you tell Blue goodbye?

Would you get to tell Blue goodbye?

“We’d like to hear about the patient first before anything,” Nathan said, moving some of his sandy hair from his face.

“Blue is responsive. He is still mute but he’s responded to me and his brother so far. I need to keep treating him. We share, somewhat of a similar history, I believe that’s why I was able to pull him out of his catatonic state.”

“What history?” George tapped his foot impatiently.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose without proper documentation from the patient that it is okay for me to do so,” You hold your head high as you spoke to him.

“You will think twice before defying me-!” George started, standing angrily from his chair.

Nathan moved, placing his hand on George’s chest.

“You’ll want to rethink your actions. That monster has full rights, including HIPPA. She is not allowed to speak of it. She has the law on her side,” Nathan said.

“She was insubordinate!”

“To me, it seems like she just cleaned up your mess,” Greg clicked his tongue, “This report is not going to look good to the council.”

George’s face went pale as he sat back in his chair.

Nathan turned back to you.

“Will he make a full recovery?” Nathan questioned.

“If I worked with him, perhaps. We haven’t had a single monster come out from one of these terror attacks and be able to speak afterward.”

“Can you do a memory link?” Nathan asked.

“Would it be safe with this bond you’ve formed with him?” Greg quickly added, shooting Nathan a glance.

“I…” You hesitated, thinking it over, “One of our laws was just broken,” You say quietly, “We have to have verbal consent from a patient to do a memory link. Blue isn’t able to give that, it’s why it hasn’t been done with any other surviving monster.”

“We were told he gave verbal consent,” Nathan frowned.

“Blue hasn’t been able to speak since the attack occurred,” You look at George, “You told me you were given written consent, this proves it’s simply not enough I suppose.”

“Give me the contract,” Nathan glared down at George. George was quick to hand over the paper.

“I’m not sure it really matters. Blue is in no state to dive back into that memory. He is so terrified of it,” You say quickly, “I refuse to force him into that situation again so soon.”

“How much time do you think he needs?” Greg asked. 

“I… a week at least. I really want him to be able to speak before worrying about delving into this memory. If we give him the chance of normalcy, he’d be more willing to go back into the memory,” You hoped at least.

“Then it’s settled, you’ll be this patient’s Mage for the week. You have total control over his treatment from this point on,” Greg said, standing.

You looked at him confused. Surely, they would take you in. Surely, at the very least, he couldn’t override George’s control over one of his own Green Mages?

Yet, George said nothing against Greg’s order.

“I’d like you to report to me every day from here on out,” Greg handed you a card with a number on it.

“Yes sir,” You say quickly.

“Wait, she has the charge of insubordination-” George started.

“She has been judged as innocent, as you technically broke your own law of verbal consent,” Nathan glared at George, “You will be coming with me to speak to the council explain your case, Gregory will be taking over the Green Mages.”

George’s face was entirely pale. He followed Nathan out of the room.

You sat in shock for a moment over what had happened.

“I trust you understand to keep this quiet,” Greg held a hand out to you.

You took it and stood, nodding quietly.

“Good girl, I see a bright future for you. I look forward to working with you,” Greg smiled at you. You were shocked that you could feel no ill intent from him, “I believe your tea is ready.” Greg motioned to Vanessa, waiting patiently at the door to Blue’s room.

  
  


You nod and quickly move to take the tea tray from her. She opened the door and you stepped in.

The door closed behind you as you realize your entire world just changed before you.

The tray shook in your hands as you walked over to the table and set it down. You took a cup and a plate with a sandwich and brought it over to Blue. He took the tea and set the sandwich to his side, looking over you worriedly but you hadn’t noticed.

You stared at the floor, hugging yourself quietly, trying to come to terms with what you had just witnessed. What you had started. You covered your mouth quietly as you felt yourself shake.

“what happened?” Stretch asked, coming around to your side.

Your head snapped up at him and you looked away. You tried to think of the best way to word it.

“The...mage who attempted to treat Blue will be taken in front of the council...that’s all I’m at liberty to say,” You spoke quietly, hoping he would understand.

“the fuck does that mean?!” The fell monster yelled at you.

You wince and throw up your block quickly.

“It means he’s being held accountable for his actions in the highest form possible for mages. If I find out anything else, I’ll let you know but…” You looked away from him.

“what’s it matter? they ain’t gonna tell  _ you  _ shit!” He said accusingly.

He was right. There wasn’t more you could do other than treat Blue. That was out of your hands entirely.

“The council has taken a special interest in Blue’s case. I’ve been appointed as his Mage for the week to continue one on one treatment with him.”

The one in the blue jacket gives you a once over.

“is he going to be okay?” The blue jacket asked.

You look at Blue and give him a small smile.

“I know Blue is going to be okay.” You put a hand over your chest.

When you look at Blue, you feel a little lighter. It didn’t matter what was going on out there. You had your mission, what you were so determined to do, right here. You would help Blue. You would worry about the rest later.

Blue gave you that little smile again and touched your forearm, as if he knew somehow what you felt.


	2. The Difficult Day

You step into the Comfort Home the next morning and head quickly to the Mages circle on Blue’s hall to get some coffee. You wanted to be here when Blue got up so you came early. You were wearing your beige work pants you wore when you worked with the paramedic crew, but your matching jacket was tied around your hips and you wearing a white t-shirt with your Mage patches on the arms.

You got a mug of coffee and looked up hearing a door click shut. Stretch looked over at you. He looked really tired. He was wearing an orange pullover hoodie now.

Stretch made his way over to you and you poured him a cup of coffee.

“Here,” You held the mug out to him.

“thanks,” He mumbled, adding sugar and, spotting some honey on the counter, added that to his coffee as well.

“Did Blue sleep well?” You asked.

“slept like a babybones all night,” He sounded relieved.

“What about you?” You were still worried about Stretch. He didn’t look like he slept a wink.

“i slept okay,” He shrugged, taking a sip.

“I’ll tell you this now then,” Stretch tensed at your words, “I’m an empath. That means I can literally feel your lies.”

You stared down at your coffee for the moment. It was quiet.

“i can’t figure it out,” Stretch admitted.

“Figure it out?”

“how did you..bring him back? He was going to fall any minute and…” Stretch gripped the mug tighter.

“I just tried. I didn’t want to see him fall. I didn’t, I can tell he’s a good monster,” You say quietly, “Through his feelings, even when he’s in shock he’s just got this...aura? Energy? He’s just a good monster and I wanted him to live. I want him to come out of this and be able to return to normalcy.”

“why do you care so much?” Stretch frowned at you.

“I don’t know,” You said suddenly, “I’ve always cared, I’ve always wanted to take care of people, my family most of all. I… I don’t have that chance anymore. Blue is the first monster to come out of these attacks and accept help. I don’t want him to regret it.”

Stretch studied you as you spoke. It was like something changed and you didn’t realize it. You didn’t feel so much negative energy come off Stretch now. He eased, relaxed. You looked up at him confused.

Stretch suddenly set his mug down and pulled out his wallet. He pulled out some bills and held it out to you.

“do me a favor, if you really want to help, go get some breakfast tacos and some puzzles. he...he really likes puzzles and brain teasers,” Stretch wouldn’t look at you.

You kept staring at him confused, rather than take the money.

“well? are you going to go or just stare at me all day?” He gave you the tiniest of smiles.

You set your coffee down and held your hand out. You shoved the bills in your pocket.

“Do you want anything for yourself?”

“mmf, some honey,” Stretch picked up his mug and went to his brother’s room.

\----------

Your strange impromptu shopping trip didn’t last long, thankfully. Maybe an hour at the most. You walk into the Comfort Home and walk to Blue’s room. You knock out of habit.

You were surprised when Blue himself opened the door. He gave you a little smile and opened the door while putting a finger to his teeth. Then pointed at the couch.

You couldn’t help but smile seeing Stretch asleep. You set the bags down and put the leftover money and receipts on the table next to Stretch, along with two bottles of honey. You urge Blue quietly to the table. You gave him a couple of breakfast tacos and a drink before setting a few tacos next to Stretch.

You sat next to Blue and began showing him the puzzles you had grabbed. Blue got stars in his eyes looking at them.

Everything in you wanted to keep seeing those stars.

\----------------------

Blue was working on a brain teaser. One of those metal ones where you had to separate the pieces. He had already gotten through three other ones from the pack. You couldn’t help your smile as you watched him work on it rather than work on your own. You still hadn’t figured out the one he handed you when he started on his first.

When he finally pulled the pieces apart, you clapped lightly. You wince when you heard Stretch groan. He flopped over and fell on the floor.

“Holy crap Stretch!” You rushed over to him, Blue close behind, “Are you okay? That sounded like it hurt.”

“ ‘mm fine...honey?” You stared at him confused. Was he calling you honey?

He held his hand out and you blinked before realizing. You put the bottle of honey in his hand and he looked up at it with a smirk. He turned over on his back and ripped the top off, guzzling down the bottle.

Blue stomped his foot behind you. You looked at Blue then back at Stretch.

“That, that cannot be healthy for you.” You say quietly.

“it’s perfectly good for me, taste good at least,” Stretch said, not sitting up. At least he pulled the bottle away from his mouth.

Blue huffed and moved, tugging his brother up by his hoodie and shaking his shoulders, making Stretch’s head flop back and forth.

“ ‘sup bro?” Stretch said, staying limp in his brother’s arms while he brought the bottle back to his mouth.

Blue shook him with more vigor this time, making Stretch stop his attempt to drink. Blue quickly grabbed the bottle out of his brother’s hand and put one of the breakfast tacos in it instead.

“aw, c’mon bro, ‘least let me finish the bottle,” Stretch said, reaching for it.

Blue stepped back and hid the bottle behind his back, pointing at the taco.

You couldn’t help a small giggle forming at the back of your throat and tried to cough to cover your amusement from watching the two of them. Blue was in front of you before you realized it and looking up at you concerned.

“Don’t worry, I’m not getting sick or anything! Just clearing my throat!” You reassured him quickly.

Blue let out a quiet sigh of relief before turning back to his brother with a determined look in his eyes.

He had come so far already. You were proud of him for coming such a long way already.

\------------

The next few days passed by in a quick, albeit, fun blur. You spent your days playing puzzles with Blue and Stretch. You got a few board games and Blue really enjoyed that as well. Typically after meals, you worked on healing Blue, guiding him safely through troubling emotions. It wasn’t easy on Blue.

While you weren’t bringing up the memory specifically and only focusing on the terrifying emotions from it, it still scared Blue. One day, in particular, was bad for Blue. He was having trouble focusing, having trouble connecting with you for some reason.

You had a sense it had something to do with his cousin, Red. The skeleton in the dark hoodie with fur lining. He had left pretty quick after you showed up this morning and Blue had seemed a little off all day.

Blue was trying to hide how he was feeling. Which was strange, he hadn’t done this before, not even while he was in shock. You kept your hands locked, he gripped your hands tightly, keeping himself grounded with you as your magic wove between your fingers.

As always, Stretch was on the couch, watching the two of you like a hawk. As Blue pulled away from your magic again, you let your magic disperse and you looked at Blue worriedly. Blue looked at you confused.

“Blue, I can’t help you if you keep pulling away,” Blue looked at you confused and lifted your hands, still together, “No, no I mean. The reason you had a bad reaction to George’s magic was that he was trying to force you to accept it. I don’t do that. I don’t force you, or anyone to accept my magic or my help. It’s an easy thing to do, but I don’t, well, I can’t do that. I think it hurts people more than it hurts them. It goes against,”  _ my soul  _ you wanted to say but you thought it sounded too dramatic, “my core. It goes against my beliefs so I don’t.”

Blue looked down at your connected hands and nodded in understanding.

“So, why do you keep pulling from me? Did I do something to upset you? Or make you uncomfortable?” Blue quickly shook his head, squeezing your hands tighter, making you confused.

“is it because of what red said, bro?” Stretch asked from his place on the couch.

Blue looked down with an almost guilty look. Stretch sighed softly and rubbed his face.

“What did Red say?” You looked worriedly between the brothers. Blue shook his head quickly to his brother.

Stretch decided to open his mouth anyways, surprising you.

“red said you were just using blue to get out of work and you’re creating a fake bond between you and Blue by manipulating his emotions. he called you a ‘siren’,” Stretch said in a deadpan tone.

Blue looked down again as if he were ashamed.

A Siren? The old creature that would sing for men to rescue her and lead them to their deaths.

You looked at him worriedly and ran your thumb across his hand.

“Blue, feel me,” You encouraged him with a small smile, “I’m not upset, I’m not mad. If you believe that, we can stop treatment and you can go home,” Why did that hurt so much? The thought of not seeing Blue again, it hurt deep.

Blue looked up at you, his eye lights searching for something.

“Every time we do this Blue, I’m opening up to you. Honestly, you have just as much control as I do. The only reason I help you feel better is that you allow me to help you,” You clear your throat, “I can’t help you if you don’t trust me. That’s okay. I understand if you don’t want my help anymore, but let me say this,” You took in a deep breath, “I have never manipulated your emotions or made you feel something towards me. I have only ever helped guide you through the emotions that morning brought to help you understand them better. That’s all.” 

Blue kept searching over your face.

“I promise,” You said softly.

Blue had little tears forming as his eyes met yours. He let go of your hands and you put up that block again. It was difficult. You hadn’t needed to around Blue since you first met him. You started to move to get off the bed to leave.

You grabbed your bag and slung it over your shoulder, not looking at either brother. You tried to keep yourself composed.

You didn’t want this. These past few days, you let yourself believe you were friends with these two. But you were just a Green Mage of the state. If Blue didn’t allow you to help him, you had no choice but to let him go and keep moving.

You moved next to him but didn’t touch him this time. You didn’t want to risk touching him and him feeling what you felt by accident. It was harder to control these intense emotions.

“Bye Blue, I’ll be back with the paperwork if you want to go home, okay?”

Blue’s hands were shaking but he didn’t move or acknowledge you otherwise. You felt like such a failure. You couldn’t help him. 

You turn away from Blue to walk away and caught Stretch’s eye. He wasn’t looking at you, but at Blue. It looked like he didn’t understand something.

You move to the door. You’re about two steps away when Stretch suddenly appeared in front of you.

You jump back, staring up at him.

“Stretch? I, how?” You look back at the couch where he had previously been then back up to him.

“you don’t want to go.” He stated, staring at you with cold eyes, “why?”

Why did you feel like you were being judged? You couldn’t help but think Stretch’s look was very similar to Nathan’s.

“I...I can’t say its really any professional reason,” You admitted, “I like hanging around you guys. I like doing puzzles with Blue even though I’m no good at them, I like chastising you with Blue when you annoy him, I like watching movies with you guys. I wanted to help Blue because I thought he was a good monster. I know he is now, so I want to help even more, but I can’t force that.”

“you could but you choose not to, why?”

“Because...then I really would be a siren. There have been studies that those who’ve had emotions forced on them like that, rather than using emotions to soothe an individual, the individual becomes almost addicted to that Mage. They can’t handle being without them in life after that. I don’t want that for Blue. I want him to be able to go home and be happy on his own like he did before.”

That cold look left Stretch’s eyes and he gave you a soft smile. You felt your chest ease and you put a hand over your heart, releasing a breath. You hadn’t realized you had gotten so tense.

“are you really gonna let her walk out after that bro?” Stretch asked, looking over at his brother.

You heard Blue climb off his bed and you hesitated before turning around. Blue was at your height but you felt so small right now, looking at him. Everything in you was begging him to not send you away.

Blue stared into your eyes for a moment before reaching for you. He hugged you tightly and you hugged him back just as tightly, doing everything you could to keep that block up. You couldn’t let him know how you felt. It hurt, keeping it up. You could feel your magic barreling against the block, so eager to show Blue your relief that he wouldn’t send you away.

“please stay,” his voice was so small, you held your breath to make sure you hadn’t misheard, “i want to help you, just like you help me.”

“Blue, let me go, please, I don’t want you to-”

“it's okay,” He whispered softly in your ear.

It hurt so bad to keep such strong emotions locked away. You held onto his upper arms tightly, trying to figure out if you wanted to give in to him or pull away.

“B-blue, really I can’t-” You want to explain, you’re trying to when he hugs you tighter, pulls you closer.

“Yes you can, don’t give me, the magnificent Blue, that nonsense!” He fully spoke this time.

The block you had constructed so perfectly and carefully, broke into a thousand little pieces when you heard his voice sound so strong.

Intense emotions ran through you, and your magic made that spread throughout the room as you lost control of it in this whirlwind.

Relief; he hadn’t turned you away, he wanted you to stay, he was getting better, Stretch stopped you from leaving.

Happiness; you get to keep these two friends you made.

Hope; you felt hope for the first time since you had been taken from your family. It was a powerful thing, making you lose control of your magic.

You clung to Blue and cried in his shoulder. He held you so tightly, you thought you might have bruises later. You didn’t care though.

You were so hopeful that you would find a way to keep the happiness these two had given you.

\--------------

You woke up slowly. You hadn’t felt so groggy in such a long time. You almost felt like you had been drugged. The only reason you thought you hadn’t been, was because you felt so well-rested. No nightmares, no terrifyingly empty dreams. You shuffled abit, rolling on your side to try and get some more of that nice sleep.

You heard a quiet chuckle and open your eyes again. You sat up abit, trying to figure out where you were.

“go back to sleep honey,” Stretch said softly, “don’t move around too much or you’ll wake blue.”

“Mm?” You peered up at him confused.

Stretch was sitting up with his back against the headboard of the bed. He had an arm around Blue, who was sleeping with that blue blanket you had given him wrapped around his shoulders and cuddling his brother’s chest. You were laying down between the two brothers. You had been using someone’s leg as a pillow you guessed.

“I...fell asleep?” You said quietly, lowering back down slowly so you didn’t disturb Blue.

“more like passed out. you let out a lot of magic earlier.” Stretch said softly, “didn’t think a human had that much magic.”

You hummed quietly in reply, letting your eyes slide shut again.

“I’m supposed to be helping him and he…” You started but lost your train of thought.

“nyeh, heh, he does that. he’s good at that,” Stretch sounded proud of his brother.

You were proud of him too. You held Blue's hand softly as you drifted off once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter for tonight! Let me know what you guys think please!


	3. And You Thought Yesterday Was Bad

“Blue’s health is accelerating quickly. He’s been talking all morning,” You speak into the phone in the Mage’s Circle in the Comfort home. 

You had decided to call Gregory and apologise for not calling the night before as you were supposed to. Luckily, the man hadn’t seemed mad or even the slightest bit irritated. If anything, he seemed relieved to hear everything was going well.

“Do you think he would be up for a Memory Link then?” Greg asked, tapping away at something.

You sucked in a breath and hesitated. You looked up where Blue and Stretch where. In the center of the hall was a couch and some armchairs for patients or family to wait or socialize at. Blue was sitting on the couch with Stretch, speaking excitedly with him. 

“I understand your hesitation but if Blue can pull this off, maybe no one else will have to go through what he did,” Greg stopping his tapping as he spoke.

“I know...I just...I’ll speak to them,” You said softly, looking away from the brothers.

“Don’t worry over it so much. Nathan and I will be there shortly,” Greg went to keep talking but you cut him off.

“You don’t mean you want to try the Link  _ today _ ? He just started showing major signs of progression and-”

“We’re aware of that,” Greg’s voice only held understanding, “But there was another incident last night. The monster didn’t make it. We need to act quickly.”

You pause and stay quiet. Another monster had died? Dusted? Even being an empath, you had a hard time understanding the hate some humans had for monsters.

“Expect us in the hour,” Greg spoke before hanging up.

  
  


\------------------

You stepped out of the Mage’s circle after composing yourself. You started walking over to Blue and Stretch when you felt someone touch your arm.

“heya.”

You look to your side to see Sans, one of Blue’s cousins. He kept a soft touch on your upper arm, making you tingle with a soft magic. You could feel his curiosity through his touch.

“we heard blue was doing good, so we came by,” Sans said casually, stuffing his hand back in his pocket.

You look back over and saw Red leaning on the couch by Blue, a big grin on his face seeing Blue chastising his brother. There were two other skeletons you didn’t know. Both tall like Stretch. One had a scar going over an eye socket and had his arms crossed as though he was displeased. You could sense a bit of relief and happiness coming off him. The other, seemed to be a lot like Blue, practically jumping for joy at seeing his friend in good spirits and whisking him up in a big hug.

You smiled seeing them all look so happy. It was moments like this that you really liked this job. You were forced into it, but there were far worse things that could have happened to you. At least this way, you got to see someone happy.

The memory of your phone call made the smile slipped off your face and you sighed.

“I’m glad you’re all here, I think Blue is going to need you here,” You speak softly, looking away from the happy image and Sans.

“why’s that?”

“They want to try another Memory Link to see what happened that morning,” You explain quietly, “They’ll be here soon to talk to Blue about it.”

Sans was quiet for a moment. You could feel the disgust coming off him.

“they can’t just work with a police statement from him?”

You rub the back of your neck and shake your head.

“They want to know exactly what happened. They think they’ll get everything they need from Blue by looking into his memory.”

“what do you think?” Sans asked, making you jump.

You looked at him and saw him staring at his family, a casual stance, an almost goofy smile on his face. 

It made the disgust and irritance rolling off him shock you.

You built up your block as best you could, it was so weak now after Blue destroyed it yesterday.

“Honestly...I’m not sure what they’re hoping to get. I don’t think it's going to get them anywhere,” You admitted.

“can’t you do anything then?” He looked down at you. He was only a few inches taller but it made you feel so small.

It was just another reminder to you what you really were.

You shake your head.

“I’m a tier 8 Green mage, acquired by the state. I don’t have control over anything, even with Blue being my patient. I have no rights, I have no leverage…” You look down at the ground and sighed quietly, scratching the tattoo of a green syringe on your neck, “They can’t force him into it but…”

“blue will do anything if he feels it’ll help,” Sans frowned, visibly, making you cock your head at him.

“There’s no use in stressing him out about it right now or causing a fight in your family. If I could give you a word of advice, enjoy a bit of time you’ve all got together. I’m hoping for the best,” You turn to head back into the Mage’s circle to make some tea for everyone.

You felt Sans staring at your back but when you peeked out of the glass windows of the Mage’s Circle, you saw Sans standing with his family, in what looked like a pun war with Stretch. Blue was rolling his eyes at his family, but when his bright eye lights caught your’s, he smiled brightly and waved to you.

\------------

You had come to find out that the new skeletons were named Edge and Papyrus. You had set up tea and a pot of coffee in Blue’s room and the whole skeletal family had filtered in. Papyrus was evidently very taken with you right away. He hugged you tightly and swung you from side to side when Blue introduced you to him.

“THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING MY DEAR FRIEND!” He yelled as he swung you about.

Even with your block up, you could feel so much from him.

Happiness.

Relief.

So. Much. Hope.

You had never felt anyone with this much Hope and positivity before.

It was a bit overwhelming honestly, but you smiled at him and strengthened your block, not noticing Stretch staring at you harder as you did.

“I-It’s what I do and I’m happy to do it. Blue is such a good monster, he deserves the best care I can give him,” You smiled up at Papyrus as he finally set you down so you could pass out the rest of the tea. 

You brought Blue a cup of tea.

“WOULD YOU MIND IF I ASKED YOU A QUESTION?” Papyrus asked as he prepared his tea.

“Of course, I’m an open book so ask away,” You smiled at him.

“HOW EXACTLY DID YOU TREAT BLUE?”

“Oh, well, would it be okay for me to tell them? I won’t say anything explicit,” You looked at Blue, who nodded.

“Of Course, Even Being Treated By You, I Have To Admit I Didn’t Fully Understand It Until You Explained It,” Blue said.

“Okay so I’m a tier 8 Green Mage. Naturally, I’m a healer, obviously,” You motioned to the room, “Typically I work in the Paramedic Crew because we’re having issues finding and training Green Mages to be adept at healing physical wounds. But, I’m working with Blue specially to help him work through the feelings he experienced. Basically, what I do is I find those feelings in him and...I guess the best way to put it is slow them down. So, it's not so intense and it's easier to make sense of.”

“so, you ain’t putting in any extra feelings?” Red raised an eye at you.

Remembering his comment to Blue about you being a siren, you shake your head.

“What Blue went through is something I haven’t. The only thing I do other than slow down those feelings is to do my best to show him that those feelings are natural by going through similar feelings I’ve had in the past. But, no I can’t make Blue feel a certain way. It has to be a two way connection. My magic works heavily on trust and the other person can always say no. So, for instance, if I were to use my magic on you, Red, and tried to show you happiness, you could turn my magic away before I show you anything,” You couldn’t help but feel a little smug seeing Red mull this over.

“is it lasting?” Sans asked from his place on the couch.

“If I were to make Red feel happy?” You asked to clarify his question. When Sans nodded, you put a hand on your chin, “To be honest, I don’t know. It depends entirely on the person or monster and if they wanted that feeling to last.”

“Ah, educating the public (Y/n)?” Greg said as he leaned on the door frame.

You looked at him and saw Nathan standing behind him with his arms crossed.

“Blue’s family was curious about his treatment,” You say to him, you earlier worries returning when you saw him.

“Of course,” Greg smiled and walked in, “It's good to meet you all. My name is Gregory. I’m the tier ten Integrity and this is Nathan. He’s the tier ten Justice. We’re from the council and we’ve taken a special interest in Blue’s case as it pertains to-”

“sure, sure,” Stretch frowned at them from where he sat next to Sans, “i want to know what’s happenin’ to that other bastard.”

“George has been Judged and has been sentenced to five years in the Pentitaray,” Nathan said easily, “Gregory will take over the Green Mages until a new tier ten Green Mage is found or acquired.”

_ Acquired _ . You feel yourself shake once hearing that word. Acquired meant hunted down, dragged out of society and forced into whatever the government wanted you to be. Being a Mage wasn’t being a human. It made you a tool. You could either accept it or run.

No one could run far enough though.

“He Should Be Executed,” Edge spoke for the first time. His gravelly voice helped ground you back to the current reality.

You look up to him, trying to get some kind of read on him. He was angry. So angry, there was so much displaced anger inside him.

“As much as I agree with you, most of the council is hesitant to get rid of any Green Mage at the moment due to the overall shortage,” Nathan shrugged, “Believe it or not, he can be of use in the Pentitaray.”

Greg moved over to Blue, “However, that isn’t what we’re here to talk about. Blue, we want to try what Green Mages call a Memory Link. It would allow a Green Mage to walk through the memory of the crime you went through with you. They would be able to give us details you may not be able to accurately recall.”

“no,” Stretch said, standing suddenly by Blue’s side, “he’s not going through that again.”

As selfish as it was, you could only think:  _ ‘Thank stars, if anyone can keep Blue from doing this, it’s Stretch.’ _

“We understand your hesitance but there was another attack. From what we can tell, it happened just like Blue’s but the monster had already dusted by the time we arrived. If this Memory Link works and breaks the case, it can save so many monsters!” Greg said quickly.

“i already said no! last time that was done, my brother nearly fell down and-” Stretch was shaking as Blue reached up and held onto Stretch’s hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll Do It,” Blue said to Greg, “I Don’t Want Anyone Else To Go Through This, So If You Think It Will Help, I’ll Do It.”

Stretch was still shaking. You could feel the anger coming off of Edge and Red at Blue’s decision. Papyrus was concerned and worried. Sans seemed disgusted by Nathan and Greg.

Greg seemed relieved and Nathan nodded. Greg went and touched your shoulder.

“Are you prepared then?”

You blink once, then twice. Then you realize he isn’t joking.

“I’ve never done a Memory Link! That’s a whole other Specialty!” You frown at him and cross your arms.

“Wait, no it’s okay, you can-”

“I am not doing a Memory Link with Blue when I’ve never done it before, especially with something like this! Call in a specialist!” You say with a frown.

“We can’t do that unless we call George back here,” Nathan sighed, pinching his nose.

“But Josie…” You felt your heart stop as you realized what he meant, “Shit.” You rub your forehead.

“who the fuck is josie?” Red asked, frowning at you.

“She worked with my on the paramedic team. She was the only one in the city that has the specialty of Memory Link. She was gunned down a few weeks ago while on the job.” You say with a frown.

“Can you do this?” Nathan said, stepping towards you, “You’ve shown the most promise as a Green Mage that we’ve seen based on current files.”

Your frown deepened.

“I’ll need a few days to prepare. But I won’t do it if Blue doesn’t feel safe with me doing it,” You said seriously.

“Of course,” Nathan said, moving around you to leave the room.

Greg patted your shoulder, gave his goodbyes to Blue and Stretch before leaving the room and shutting the door quietly.

You felt a sudden urge to punch the wall. Maybe throw a chair through a window. You were so unbelievably frustrated. Had they really expected you to just pick up a specialty and use it on Blue like that?

“(Y/n),” You look up hearing Blue call your name. He patted the bed beside him and you sighed, moving to sit next to him and rub your temples as you did.

Blue set a hand on your shoulder and rubbed it softly. Stretch set his hand on your other shoulder, standing next to you.

“What Does This Memory Link Call For?” Edge asked, gritting his teeth as he did.

“An absolute connection, it's hard to obtain even for an empath. If I force it even in the slightest, it could damage all the progress Blue has made,” You look at Blue and he gave you a smile, “This is really dangerous Blue, you don’t have to do this.”

“It’s Okay. Really. I Trust You!” Blue took your hand, “You Even Said Yourself, You Can’t Force Someone To Accept Your Magic, So Really, I Am At My Most Safest With You Performing This Speciality As You Call It.”

“bro, has a point there,” Stretch said quietly.

“IS IT REALLY DANGEROUS THOUGH?” Papyrus looked uncertain still. 

“It can be. It’s original use wasn’t for anything like this,” You admitted quietly.

“original use?” Sans asked.

“When Mages first started being discovered and the specialities being discovered, the government was deciding who would be best where,” You rub your face, feeling your block slowly peeling away, “The reason there’s a shortage of Green Mages now is because two years ago, most of us were shipped out to the East to help war efforts. Originally, Green Mages were there to just heal but...Memory Link was discovered by accident during this time. Some Green Mages used it to get information from the enemy, other’s used it as a way of torture.”

You stared hard at the blankets on the bed, remembering those days in the East. Hearing the screams that went against your beliefs. How could healers be turned so easily into torturers?

“did you ever do it?” You looked up and saw Red staring hard at you.

You shake your head, “I refused. They put me on the front lines to heal those that fell there but...I ended up living anyways. By the time the war was done and the council heard what the Green Mages had done, we were all judged. Those deemed twisted or unfit for duty for the state were then...well, the story differs depending on you talk to. Some say those Green Mages were sold by the Government to be servants or what have you. Others say they were executed immediately after their Judgement. Most likely, they’re rotting in the Penitentiary.”

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND, HOW COULD WE NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?!” Papyrus was frowning.

“You’re all citizens with full rights,” You say softly and feel the frustration and anger from before fall away from you suddenly, “The government wouldn’t allow this information to simply be known to those who could change the current political backdrop,” You pause for a moment then shake your head, remembering your place, “I apologise for burdening you all with this information.” You bow your head to them.

Blue rubbed your back softly while Stretch kept his hand tightly on your shoulder. It brought you some comfort, but you were having trouble grounding yourself. Your mind was assaulted with memories. You had nearly starved to death in the East, gotten dehydrated more times than you could count, and not to mention the many scars on your torso, stomach, and thighs from battles.

As much as you hate to admit it, a year on the front lines had taken a toll on you. It’s why you didn’t mind working doubles. You liked your job because it kept you so busy you didn’t have time to think about those days.

Being in the East was what made you construct your block in the first place. You had too, or else you were sure your very soul would have been twisted like other Mages that had been there with you.

“ …(y/n)?”

You looked up at Stretch as he said your name. He was giving you a worried look but you pushed away any feelings you could pick up from him.

Just like that, your block was back to full capacity, no longer damaged from your breaththrough with Blue.

“I’m sorry,” You move to stand up, “I need to go to the library and get some materials, read through what information we have on Memory Link.”

“yeah, ‘course, we’ll be here,” Stretch said as you moved past him to grab your bag.

You head to the door and hesitate before turning and giving Blue a small smile.

“I’ll be back in time for dinner. See you in a bit Blue,” You waved to him before rushing out the door.

You miss the looks the skeletal family give you as you head out.

\-------------

By the time you get to the library, you have your full uniform on rather than just having your jacket tied at your waist. You were so damn cold.

You entered the small building without much grandeur. It was simple brick building on the outside and inside was not much of anything either. The only thing that would be considered strange compared to any other library was that there was a section locked away behind a door.

It contained more descriptive practices for Mages. It was kept locked away from the public for their safety. No one wanted kids picking up these rare books and deciding to try and use ‘magic’ by sacrificing a cat despite only one book depicting that.

You ignore the woman behind the desk and head to the door, placing your hand on the knob, she suddenly called out.

“I’m sorry, you can’t go in there!”

You blinked and turned to her.

“Um, you not see the patches?” You pointed to the side of your arms.

“Not you, um…” She looked over your shoulder.

You blink before turning, and you couldn’t help jumping at the sight of Sans.

“What are you…? Did you follow me?” You stared up at him confused.

“thought you’d get  _ bonely  _ on your own,” Sans said casually, as if he hadn’t been about to just stroll into a restricted area.

“Well...the stuff I need is in there and I’m not allowed to take it out or show you or anything,” You feel as though you should apologise, but you were still confused by this skeleton. Shouldn’t he be back with the others?

“i can  _ skull-k _ around out here until you’re done then. we’re picking up dinner for everyone on the way back. take your time,” Sans shrugged and walked over to the area open to the public.

You and the woman behind the desk share a strange look.

At least you didn’t have to fight Sans to get him to leave.

You shrug at her and went in the room and went to work. You gathered a few books from the back. You turn to take them to the small table up front but nearly scream when you see Sans behind you.

He quickly covers your mouth and pushes you back against the shelves as he does.

“shhh, don’t wanna get caught do we?” Sans winks at you, making you question how bone could possibly be so movable, “gonna take my hand away now, ‘kay?”

You stare at him for a moment, clutching the books tightly to your chest before nodding once. He takes his hand away from your mouth and gives you that easy grin again.

“What are you doing? How’d you even get in here?” You whisper to him quietly, looking worriedly behind him.

“don’t worry about it, let’s just get started,” He took a book from you and flicked it open. “oh, you can read our monster language huh?”

“It just kinda comes naturally to most mages, are you crazy?! You could get arrested for this!” You say quickly as Sans takes a seat next to where you’re standing.

“heh, didn’t mean to make ya jump outta your skin, just wanted to help you out.”

You had a hard time believing that but you sit next to him with a small sigh. You flip open your book to start reading.

  
  


\------------------

Studying with Sans turned out to be more helpful than you thought it would be. He would occassionally ask you questions about Green magic and you were more than willing to answer them. It helped you to remember some old things you hadn’t thought of, some it might even be helpful.

You took notes down in a plain journal, quietly working in tandem with the skeleton. At six, he nudge you.

“we should get goin’.”

You nod quietly, finishing up a note quickly.

“Sure, what did everyone want for dinner anyways?” You asked, tucking away your notebook back in your bag.

“we’ll make a stop at an old favorite of ours,” Sans shrugged and stood up.

He surprised you by holding a hand out for you to take. You blinked at it then back at him. He stared at you back for a moment then his smile seemed to grow more strained.

“uh, ya gonna take my hand there or…?”

“Sorry,” You shake your head and snap out of it, “Sorry, just...been a day.” You take his hand and stand up with his help.

“it’s cool, i get it,” Sans shrugged and handed you a book. 

You turned and put the books away. When you turned back, you weren’t surprised to see Sans not there.

You walk out of the restricted room and saw Sans walk out of the public area of the library and over to you.

He gave you that goofy smile and waved as if he hadn’t just seen you. It made you chuckle and you felt your block fall away a little.

You both walk out of the library and you follow Sans down the street to whatever restaurant the family had picked. It was quiet for most of the walk. You walked behind Sans, something that had become natural for you.

It was always stuck in your head. You were below those with rights and you had to show it in one way or another at all times.

It wasn’t until after you walked a few blocks like this did Sans stopped. You nearly crashed into him but thankfully, stopped just before you touched him. You looked around but didn’t see any restaurant around.

“Um…?”

“ya know...you can walk beside me?” Sans didn’t look at you as he spoke.

“Oh, uh, sorry does it bother you?” You asked, stepping to the side of him. You tried to get a look at his face but he scratched the back of his neck and looked away from you.

“what did they do to you?” His question was quiet but it felt like an attack, hitting at your block.

You look down quickly and away from him.

“I uh…” No one had asked you that before. It was all common knowledge what happened to Mages that were  _ acquired _ by the state.

At least, you thought it was.

You figured monsters were okay with it, considering that Mages were the whole reason they had been stuck in the underground in the first place.

“It’s not something I like to talk about,” You finally say.

You can feel Sans eyes scanning over you. You feel more of your block chip away.

“look, maybe i could-”

“It’s getting dark out already,” You cut him off and look up at the sky.

There were no stars of course. Too much light pollution. If the government hadn’t butt into your life, you would like to think you would already have or at least be building your little cabin by now. Right now, in some other life, maybe you were looking up at the stars right now, rather than be in this stuffy city.

“...you’re right, we should get goin’,” Sans thankfully dropped it.

You kept walking together, you made a point to walk beside Sans this time though.

At a crosswalk, you sighed quietly, watching the traffic and leaning on the light pole, waiting for the signal for you both to walk. There were some others behind you but you didn’t take much notice of them.

You wanted to just go home and get some sleep but you didn’t want to worry Blue either. Just the thought of Blue made you smile softly. He was doing so much better already. He had exceeded your expectations of recovery-

It happened so fast.

One minute you were just leaning on the pole, the next someone whispered in your ear:

“Traitor.”

You recognized the feel of gravity magic encompassing you, shoving you into the oncoming traffic. You raised your hands, as if that could stop the magic holding onto your body.

You closed your eyes tightly and waited for a car to strike you.

You felt like you were falling endlessly. You wanted to scream but it was caught in your throat. You felt arms encircle you as gravity naturally settled on your body once more. You stayed tensed, still waiting on the hit.

“(y/n), its okay, you’re okay!” Sans was talking to you.

Slowly, you put your arms down and opened your eyes. You were in an alley.

“it’s okay, i just took a shortcut,” Sans said, “calm down, first time is always the worst.”

All your senses seemed to jumpstart. You suddenly became aware of the fact you were hyperventilating. There didn’t seem to be enough air. You become hyper aware of how close you were to Sans, you were practically in his lap. Tears started pouring down your face.

_ CRRK _

It was too much. You were called a traitor and almost killed. If Sans hadn’t been there…

_ CRRRK _

If he hadn’t followed you…

** _CRRRKKK_ **

You could hear so much. The cars passing by were so loud. You could hear some bustle of a restaurant close by. People laughing and walking by, completely unaware that someone almost died.

You covered your mouth, trying to cover the sobs wracking your body.

Sans hugged you tightly to him. He was whispering to you but you couldn’t hear him.

Everything seemed so bright despite it being dusk. You shut your eyes tightly as you trembled against the skeleton. You held onto one of his arms tightly, curling up in his lap as fear ran through you.

He kept you seated firmly to him. You could hear his low voice speaking but you couldn’t make out his words. You couldn’t even tell if he was speaking to you anymore.

_ ‘Why?’ _ You thought,  _ ‘Why is this happening? I didn’t want any of this. I didn’t want magic. I didn’t want to do anything special. I just wanted to live!’  _

You felt Sans’ hand run over your back and through your hair. He pushed your head gently into his shoulder and you buried your face in the blue fabric.

You tried to calm yourself but you could  _ feel  _ your blood pumping. It was so hot. Your heart was hammering in your chest despite not moving.

As suddenly as it came, your senses started to dull again. You couldn’t hear your heart, you were freezing as the chatter of people and the sounds of cars died down. You hiccuped in your hand, still crying in Sans’ shoulder as your panic attack subsided suddenly. You stayed tensed, waiting for another wind of it to come.

“it’s okay,” Sans whispered your name, “help is coming, it’s okay. you’re safe here.”

His hand was at your neck, rubbing softly before travelling down your back soothingly.

“there you go, just calm down for me. you’re doing great.”

What felt like hours later, you finally got your breathing under control. You felt exhausted. You knew your should pull away from Sans but you had a hard time moving. Your body felt numb, yet electrified at the same time.

“ s’ok, you don’t need to be scared,” Sans said to you.

You were terrified. Why had someone tried to kill you? Or at the very least hurt you? You were nothing more than a cog in a giant machine, filled with many other cogs and parts that were far more important than you. So, why try to kill you?

You can't wrap your mind around it.

“hey!” You heard Stretch next to you. He kneeled down and placed a hand on your back, “honey, it’s okay now. what happened?”

You remained tensed, still trying to make sense of the moment.

“we stopped at the crosswalk on the way to grillby’s. some guy leaned over her then used blue magic on her, pushed her into traffic. i snagged her just in time and got her here,” Sans answered for you.

“did you get a look at him?” Stretch sounded strained asking.

“didn’t have time to,” You could hear Sans frown as he ran his free hand through your hair once more, “she had a panic attack.”

“i don’t fucking blame her,” Stretch said seriously.

“i told ya idiots this city was shit! we shoulda moved a long time ago,” Red spoke from the entrance from the alley.

After a moment of silence from the skeletons, you shakily sat up, finally removing yourself from Sans’ shoulder and took your hand away from your mouth. You rub your face hard.

“hey, hey, take it easy there honey,” Stretch said, softly taking a hold of one of your wrists.

You shakily looked up at him, trying to find something to say to him.

“H-he said I was a traitor…” You say quietly, “He said I was a traitor and then he…”

You started shaking again. Stretch rubbed your wrist softly with his thumb.

“it’s going to be okay honey,” He said gently, “we’ll find him, don’t worry.”

Stretch moved closer to you and suddenly picked you up from Sans’ lap. You clung to his orange hoodie, trying hard to keep your focus on the tie strings of it to ground you. It didn’t help, you still felt your mind running wildly.

“i’m going to take her back to the comfort home, she should be safe there,” Stretch said.

He held you easily with one arm while he reached with the other to help Sans’ up. Red walked over to the three of you.

“where do ya live?” He asked you suddenly.

“W-what?” You looked at Red confused.

“yer stayin’ with blue tonight, yer gonna want a change of clothes or somethin’ right?” Red frowned at you, “we’ll grab yer shit so ya don’t gotta leave later.”

“Oh...um…” You look down before giving him the address, “T-thanks Red.”

“whatever, jus’ clean up ‘fore ya see blue. you’ll give him a heart attack if he sees ya like that,” Red shrugged and turned away from you.

Sans went to follow him, giving you a strange look and a small wave. You stared after them until Stretch shifted you in his arms. You looked up at him quietly and he just gave you a small smile.

“don’t worry honey, i need you to take a deep breath and close your eyes okay? i’m gonna take a shortcut.”

  
  


\----------------

You stared at yourself in the mirror. You had been scrubbing the tears away in a bathroom in the Comfort Home for the past ten minutes. Your face was all red, your cheeks and eyes puffy. There was no way to erase all the evidence of your panic attack for Blue. 

You sigh and shut off the water faucet. What were you going to tell Blue? You couldn’t even stand the thought of lying to him. You were too tired from today to even think straight to even come up with a coherent lie.

You kept trying to come up with excuses when you heard a knock on the door.

Quietly, you walked over to the door and opened it, “Sorry for taking so long-” You stopped when you realized you were looking at Blue.

His eyes scrunched up in worry as he took in your appearance.

“Stretch Told Me What Happened,” Blue said, before reaching for you.

You didn’t hesitate to wrap your arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly. His arms went around you and held you securely to him.

“I Won’t Let Anything Bad Happen To You Again,” Blue said softly.

You knew that was impossible.

But, your body relaxed as you allowed yourself to believe in him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5,882 words, holy crap. I'm so tired. I'm so so so so tired. If you like this, leave me a comment. It fills me with determination!


	4. It's Not Home Without A Panic Attack

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a warning, someone has a panic attack. Not really super descriptive but I also feel like it is. So, ya know, warning for ya!

Red and Sans walked side by side as they walked down your block. They were both quiet. Sans was trying to figure out why someone would want to kill you. You were Blue’s healer, but what could be in Blue’s head that could break this OBF case?

You were the only one in the city that had a chance of doing Memory Link evidently, but it was decided only hours ago that you would be the one to do it. Who could have found out about it and gone after you so quickly?

Sans didn’t know you well but Blue liked you. Hell, he liked you a little, despite his distaste for humans and mages in general. You weren’t so bad. You only wanted to help Blue.

“this is the shittiest part of the city,” Red grumbled beside Sans.

Sans peered around, frowning at the old apartment buildings. They were all falling apart. There were sigils and graffiti drawn on the buildings and leading into the alleyways. Only a couple of street lamps were working.

“doesn’t seem like the safest place for a woman,” Sans noted.

“no shit,” Red motioned over to a piece of graffiti.

‘ **FUCK ALLEY, ENTER AT OWN RISK’**

Sans stared at the words, wondering for a moment if it was a warning posted by a gang or put up by some woman, warning others of a very bad place.

Sans turned to look straight ahead again and kept walking with Red. His eye lights were gone as he walked.

Red treated this as if it were normal. He seemed to almost strangely belong in this scene. He walked confidently as he always did. A couple of mages that were hanging around the entrance to another alley eyed them up.

Red smirked at them and flashed his red eye light at them, sending them running. Sans sighed as his taller counterpart snickered to himself.

“this it?” Sans looked up at the green apartment building.

It was just like the others: old and vaguely creepy. Could you not afford to rent somewhere else in the city?

“looks like the right address,” Red said, checking his phone before heading up to the door.

There was a buzzer system but Red just pulled the door open easily.

“i’m liking this less and less. good thing stretch didn’t come with us, he might’ve freaked,” Sans stepped in the drafty front room.

“ya think he woulda lost his head over it?” Red smirked at his little joke, eyeing up the place, “can’t believe how attached he’s gettin’ to that girl.”

“she’s the reason blue is alive,” Sans shrugged, heading up the stairs.

“still though, he was more paranoid about humans than you,” Red snickered quietly when Sans frowned back at him.

“yeah, yeah, i’m not the one that suggested gettin’ her stuff for her. or is there some other reason you wanted to check out her place?” Sans smirked at his doppelganger, “sure you’re not just checkin’ for some danger red? make sure no one is stalking her place for her?”

“i jus’ don’t wanna see blue get dusted over some fuckin’ girl,” Red frowned at Sans and pushed past him.

Sans rolled his eyes at Red and went up to the landing. As they walked down the hall, he frowned. The place was rotting. There was mold in the walls and just walking into the place made even Sans feel gross.

They went up to the door, 204. Red instinctively reached in his pockets then curse.

“fuck, i’ve forgot to grab her damn key.”

Sans stared at the door and tilted his head as if confused.

“don’t think she has one,” Sans grabbed the doorknob, noticing it didn’t have a keyhole.

He turned the knob and pushed the door open easily.

Red surveyed the rest of the hall, taking a careful look at the doorknobs.

“none of ‘em do,” Red grumbled.

Sans pushed into the apartment, a sense of dread growing inside him as he looked around. It wasn’t really an apartment. It was a single, narrow room with a bathroom in a side room. A single eye burner was on a small table. There was a small fridge and a ratty bed that even Sans wouldn’t have slept on in the underground. A single thin sheet was thrown off the side of it.

There were no decorations or pictures of your family or friends or even just you. 

Red glared at the room, staying in the doorway as Sans walked further in.

“i thought she worked all the damn time, where is all her shit?” Red frowned.

“i’m starting to wonder if they even pay her,” Sans moved and opened up your fridge.

Only half a sandwich that you had bought from a convenience store a few days ago. The place was depressing, Sans didn’t need to be an empath to see that.

“i thought girls were all about that pinterest shit? makin’ stupid shit and havin’ too many pillows,” Red paused, glaring at her bed, “she don’t even have one fuckin’ pillow!”

Sans sighed and closed the fridge and stood up. He saw a plastic bag on the floor, so he grabbed it and went over to your small dresser. He opened it up and shoved some clothes in the bag. 

He tried to ignore the fact that you had very plain, very uniformed clothes and nothing else.

“does the kid know about this?” Red leaned on the door frame as Sans walked back to him.

“doubt it, they would’ve thrown a fit over it if they knew,” Sans pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures.

He’d show Frisk and Toriel later, maybe they could get something done for the Mages.

Or at the very least, for you.

———————

Sans and Red walked back into the Comfort Home, frowning at the surroundings. The counsel put so much work into this place yet had barely given their Mages enough to survive on. Sans felt his soul twist in a sickening way.

They went to Blue’s room and walked quietly in. 

Sans stared for a moment at Blue.

Blue had always been so active. Rarely did he ever sit and do something he would consider lazy. Yet, here he was, laying back in his bed with his brother, watching TV. You were laying between them in the bed, your head resting on Blue’s thigh. You were fast asleep, holding onto one of Blue’s hands tightly. Blue’s free hand was curled in your hair. Stretch was knocked out, lying beside you, an arm thrown over your shoulders.

Sans stepped in, placing the bag with your clothes beside the bed while Red waited at the door.

“paps and edge head home?” Sans asked quietly to Blue.

Blue nodded and whispered as best he could, “They Said They Would Bring A Home-cooked Meal Tomorrow. We’ll Be Okay Tonight.”

Sans nodded then glanced down at you. For the first time, he was noticing just how small you were. It didn’t sit right with him. You were the first good human he had met on the surface. You deserved more than this.

You twitched suddenly, holding onto Blue’s hand tighter as your face scrunched up before turning into Blue’s thigh. Blue rubbed some of your hair back, trying to soothe you. Sans couldn’t help it, he was angry.

Why did he hate that you were having a nightmare?

Why did he care so much?

“Sans?”

Sans glanced up at Blue, then back at you, before he sighed and rubbed the back of his skull.

“everything is fine blue, i just don’t like how this is turning out,” Sans admitted, “we’ll be back with papyrus and edge tomorrow, get some good sleep tonight.”

Blue hesitated but smiled at Sans and nodded.

As they left, Red closed the door. Red glared at the doorknob, realizing this one could be locked.

—————————-

You woke up in the morning, feeling just as exhausted as you had when you had gone to sleep. The constant nightmares ensured you would get no rest. You lifted your head and rubbed one of your eyes softly as if the simple action could rub away your tiredness.

You jumped when you felt a hand on your cheek and looked up to see Blue smiling softly at you.

“You Should Get Some More Sleep,” he said.

“I’m okay Blue, I should get up anyways. I have to call Greg, I forgot to last night. Again,” You sighed quietly.

“I’m Sure He’ll Understand,” Blue gently guided your head back to his chest.

Still half asleep, you curled to him and wrapped an arm around his side. He held you softly like he was worried to hold you too tightly and you’d pop. Blue ran a hand down your back as you curled to him.

You closed your eyes and tried to remember the last time you were held like this. You tried to remember the last time some cared for you like this.

It was difficult to come up with anything before meeting the skeletal family.

You heard the door open and close. Someone walked over to the bed, but you didn’t even bother to lift your head.

“she asleep bro?” Stretch asked, sitting carefully on the bed.

“I Think So,” Blue kept rubbing your back as he spoke.

Stretch put his hand on your upper arm and rubbed it softly with his thumb.

“her soul is so dim,” Stretch spoke sadly after a long moment.

Blue stopped rubbing your back and wrapped his arm around you, pulling you closer and holding you tighter.

“She’ll Be Okay, We Just Need To Be There For Her,” Blue said confidently.

“bro, i wanted to talk to you about something,” Stretch paused for a moment before continuing, “i think we should move you to in-home treatment. i think it’d be more comfortable for both of you if we did.”   
  


“It Should Be Safer For Her To, That’s Good Thinking Papy!”

You felt tears come to your eyes and you hugged Blue tighter. You hadn’t realized how much you missed people caring about you.

——————————

You sat in the Mages Circle, freshly showered and in your uniform pants and a plain sweatshirt with the Green Mage signature patches on the arms. Your wet hair was tied back into a ponytail. You quietly waited for Greg and Nathan while nursing some hot coffee.

“heya,” You nearly spit out your coffee when you heard Sans’ voice from behind you.

“Jeez! You nearly gave me a heart attack,” You say, covering your chest with your hand.

“uh, you’re not actually going to have a heart attack are you?”

You chance a look back at Sans and couldn’t help a small chuckle. He looked ready for action, ready to catch you if you fell over with a heart attack. His eye lights were wide and worried, looking over you quickly.

“I’ll put it to you this way, if I was over fifty, I’d probably be on the floor. I’m okay, it’s just a human expression.”

Sans sighed out relieved before grabbing a cup of coffee. You watched him for a moment before looking into your mug.

“Thanks for yesterday,” You rub your thumb over the rim of the mug, “If you hadn’t been there uh…”

“don’t worry about it,” Sans said casually, moving to sit next to you at the table.

You sipped your coffee, watching the front doors to the Home for a minute. You give up on it after a few minutes and turn to look at Sans. You were surprised to find him looking at you, right at your chest.

You look down at your shirt.

“What? I spill some coffee or something?”

Sans chuckled and shook his head, “it’s nothing, don’t worry. blue almost ready?”

“Yeah. Paperwork is being filed and I’ll get his discharge papers as soon as it’s ready. It’ll be in-home treatment from now on.”

“good, this place is creepy at night,”

“It’s definitely off-putting when all the lights are off,” You agreed. 

You hear your name called and you look up, seeing Greg and Nathan walking to the circle.

You stood up, offering them coffee. You noticed Sans all but glaring at the men as you poured their coffee and set it in front of them.

“Blue is moving to in-home treatment then? I think it’s a smart call, start getting him ready to go back into life,” Greg said, dumping some creamer in his coffee.

“Do you think you’ll be ready for the Memory Link at the end of this week?” Nathan asked.

You frown and sigh.

“It’s a specialty. It’s something to be studied for years and you’re asking me to figure it out in a matter of days, you realize this right?” At Nathan’s glare, you realize you should watch your sharp tongue.

You felt something strange from Sans though. It was a feeling you hadn’t felt in such a long time you had a hard time giving it a name. Positive for sure. Pride maybe? But you had a hard time understanding why Sans felt like that in this moment. Why was it positive when you felt it from George before and it had always been negative from your superior?

“We do realize this but you must understand this is a time-sensitive case.”

“speaking of the case,” Sans interrupted, causing the two men to look away from you, “your star green mage here was nearly killed yesterday.”

“What?” Greg looked at you with concern written on his face.

Nathan, on the other hand, looked pissed.

“Why didn’t you call us right away?”

“you know now,” Sans spoke for you, drawing Nathan’s attention back to him, “after it happened, stretch got her back here. she passed out afterward so we decided to wait until now to tell ya.”

You looked at Sans shocked. Why was he taking the fall for you? Stretch or Blue, you got that. You did your job and did your best taking care of Blue so they helped you. You guys were friends.

Sans barely knew you.

So, why did he seem to feel responsible for you?

Nathan and Sans seem to enter a glaring competition. Nathan was glaring at Sans like he was the biggest annoyance in the world. Sans leaned back in his chair casually, smiling the whole while but his eyes were challenging Nathan.

Greg coughed once before speaking, “Would you please give us the full story? We’d like to get a full report to start the investigation.”

————————

After one very intense hour of questioning, you were grateful to watch Greg and Nathan leave. You sigh softly after the doors close behind them. Even after two cups of coffee, you were ready for a nap.

“ya good?” Sans was looking at you, still glaring at where Nathan had walked out.

“I’m fine. Are you okay?” Your question seems to snap Sans out of his gaze since he looked down at you with a raised brow, “It was pretty intense. You didn’t have to-”

“don’t worry about it, i shoulda called ‘em yesterday but i wasn’t thinking about it. not gonna let you get in trouble for it,” Sans shrugged and looked away.

“Still, thank you Sans,” You heard Blue call your name and you turn to him, missing the small blush on Sans’ cheeks.

“Edge Will Be Here In A Few Minutes To Pick Us Up!” Blue said in a cheery tone, making you smile.

He was wearing jeans and a gray sweater, and a blue bandana around his neck. It was almost strange seeing him outside of the Comfort Home’s uniform but it made you so happy.

“got time to come over with us?” Stretch asked, tilting his head at you.

“I should head over to the library. There are still a few books I need to look up,” You felt their disappointment.

“we got some old stuff at the house you should probably take a look at,” Sans said, appearing at your side.

“Old stuff?” You looked at him confused.

“gotta dig it outta the attic but we have some old books from mages that are dated back before the war. might be something useful in them. haven’t read ‘em since i was a kid,” Sans shrugged.

“Yeah, I can take a look at those,”

“So, You’ll Come Over With Us Then!” Blue smiled brightly again and grabbed your hand, pulling you out of the Comfort Home.

Stretch and Sans walked lazily behind you both. Stretch nudge Sans and they stopped as you both exited and stood by the doors.

“you’re sure you don’t mind her staying with us?” Stretch raised a brow at Sans, “you were more than hesitant when i talked to you about it a few days ago. i haven’t talked to her about it yet so if you’re having second thoughts...”

Sans sighed, he had known this question was coming.

“it’ll be fine, paps is excited for her to stay over. he spent all day getting the guest bedroom ready,” Sans tried to shrug off the question and walk forward.

Stretch stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder.

“what aren’t you telling me? did something else happen?”

Sans looked up at Stretch, ready to push the question off again, but when he met Stretch’s searching gaze, he frowned instead.

“she doesn’t have a lock on her door,” Sans said as if that were the answer to everything. 

It was in a way. It was one of the few factors that lead him to this decision, to allow this woman to live with them if she chose to.

“she doesn’t have a lock on her door?” Stretch said confused.

“none of the mages in her apartment building do. front door isn’t locked either,” Sans frowned at his brother’s counterpart, “she lives in a seedy place, i wouldn’t be surprised if something bad happened to her there and she just hasn’t told us yet.”

Stretch’s eyes widened then he looked out the doors where his brother and you were standing. You were smiling. He couldn’t imagine anything bad happening to you. But you hid it well. You had even in the war in the East and he hadn’t picked up on it.

You hid everything as well as they did.

Stretch didn’t like it.

“can we get her out of that place?” Stretch asked, still watching you and Blue talking.

“if she agrees to stay with us until blue is recovered, it’s just a bit of paperwork. but, it's the after that’s gonna be a bitch,” Sans frowned, “she was right, the government did sell some of their mages, they still do. doubt they would let her go though since she’s the highest green mage in the county.”

“there’s gotta be some way, maybe we could say blue needs her full time?” Stretch mumbled as they started walking towards the doors again.

“maybe, i let the kid and tori know how the mages are livin’, maybe they can do something,” Sans didn’t feel so certain about that.

The problem was the law. Sans remembered when the Mage’s Atonement Act was passed a few years ago but never thought much of it. He thought it was just Mages paying for their past crimes.

He read it last night, it was basically slaverly with pretty words. The government didn’t pay them, instead it allowed mages a small monthly allowance and an apartment, no matter how many hours were worked. There was no chance to get out of it. If you were a mage, you were stuck with whatever the government wanted you to do.

In his research, he had come across another thing that bothered him.  _ Acquisition.  _ He had heard you say it a few times when you introduced yourself but never thought much of it. It had been spelled out in the Mage’s Atonement Act however. Any mage that didn’t turn themselves in, would be  _ acquired  _ by the state and held for training, then placed appropriately. Before training began, mages were required to take on some form of a mark that showed their disloyalty.

Like your tattoo.

You had been taken from your home, from your family. You had been branded by the government as property.

Sans’ soul clenched tightly in his chest at the thought of someone taking him away from Paps or, stars forbid, someone taking Paps from him.

One day, you had stopped being a person and became a tool for the state and he didn’t entirely understand why. He understood humans were a mostly vile and disgusting race. In truth, he could barely stand Frisk or any of the other human ambassadors after all the resets he had been through. This Act had come into place merely a year after monsters gained their rights, after mages started popping up and becoming big news as magic filled the air again. Humans, at some point while Sans hadn’t been paying attention, became more afraid of mages than monsters.

Like most other monsters, he had been fine with this whole thing. Why not make mages work towards a better future? It helped the economy according to experts across the country. Morale had gone up in both monsters and humans since it happened. Everything on paper pointed the Act to being a good thing.

Above all that though, he couldn’t get a grasp on why all this bothered him suddenly because of you. To be honest, he really didn’t care. Not about other mages, not about humans. Sans only cared for his family. But to think you had been hurt because of this Act made him wanted to abolish it.

He wanted to destroy the humans that wrote it and those that signed it.

It kept spinning around in his head and his soul painfully pulled at itself at the thought of you going through pain because he hadn’t cared.

Taken from your family, you had gone through a war, then forced onto a paramedic team where one mage had been shot.

Sans couldn’t help but wonder what else had happened to you. As he and Stretch stepped outside the doors finally and next to Blue and you, he stared at your smile.

How could you smile after all that when you had nothing left?

\------------

You were up in the attic with Blue, sorting through boxes and looking for the one that held the books Sans had been talking about earlier.

“He Sure Is Messy,” Blue grumbled, shifting through another box before pushing it away unsuccessful.

“You don’t have to help me look Blue,” You said with a small smile, “Really, I can find them on my own if you want to go do something else.”

Blue looked over at you and shook his head. He walked over to you to peer in the box you were looking in. You were sorting through the books, but they were mostly joke and science books.

“Why Are You Wearing Those?” Blue pointed to your thick gloves.

“Old stuff has...this energy. It’s kind of hard to explain. Whenever you have something, it’ll slowly take on your energy as you use it. Like the blue blanket I gave you. I let you have it cause it use to be mine. I only ever thought of good stuff and only had good dreams with it, I gave it to you because I knew the good energy on it would help you. With old stuff like this, there’s no telling what kind of energy is on it, so to be safe, I wear these gloves so it’s harder on me to pick up on the energies incase it’s anything bad.”

Blue looked surprised then scrunched his brow bone.

“Huh, I Never Noticed You Wearing Them Before,” He quirked his head, reminding you of a cat and making you smile.

“Nah, I don’t need to wear them at the Comfort Home,” You look back down at the box and keep working through it, “Everything there is pretty new or has a positive energy attached so it’s safe for me to not wear my gloves there. I don’t really like wearing them ‘cause there just...there? There’s no energy and its really weird to be honest.”

Blue looked over you for a moment before starting to look through another box.

“You Know, We Have A Library. I’m Not Surprised That Lazy-Bones Cousin Of Mine Didn’t Put These Books There But I’m Starting To Think He May Have,” Blue said.

You push the box you were looking through away and sighed before standing up and stretching. You had been going at this for the better part of an hour now. You cracked your neck with a small sigh, not noticing the bright blush on Blue’s face.

“You’re right, let’s go look in the library. Be nice to get out of this musty attic for abit,” You said as you walked over to the door.

Not hearing Blue following you, you look over at him confused. Blue was just standing there and looking at you with a bright blush.

“Blue?” You reached out to him with your magic naturally, trying to pick up on his emotions. But to your surprise, Blue quickly shut you out.

“I’m-I’m Fine!” Blue raised his hands quickly and walked past you, opening the door and walking out, “Quickly! We Should Find The Books You Need!”

You follow Blue quickly out of the attic. You follow him downstairs, trying to keep up with him.

“Wait, Blue, did I do something? Why are you blushing?” 

“The Magnificent Blue Is Not Blushing!” Blue walked faster, practically running down the hall at this point.

“Blue! C’mon, if I did something weird or taboo, I wanna know so I don’t do it again!” You called, trying to keep up with him as you followed him to the first floor of the large skeletal household.

You nearly ran into Blue’s back as he entered the den and suddenly stopped.

“Blue?” You walked to his side and looked to him confused. You looked at the den and saw Stretch, Red, Edge, and Sans there.

It looked like you had interrupted an important conversation. What concerned you though was that one of Stretch’s hands were gripped in a fist and shaking. You could feel his anger though it wasn’t directed towards anyone here.

You didn’t hesitate to walked past Red and Sans, both of who stared after you, as you stood in front of Stretch. The skeleton was sitting on the couch and glaring at the ground. You touched his shoulder worriedly.

“What’s wrong? Why are you upset?” You asked him quietly.

Stretch looked up at you, and you gasped when you saw unfiltered magic steaming out of one of his eye sockets. You didn’t pull away though.

Stretch didn’t say anything as he looked up at you.

“Stretch?” You asked again.

You could read his feelings.

Hurt.

Anger.

Regret.

Guilt.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” You knelt in front of Stretch as Blue came to his side, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

You ripped your gloves off quickly and reached to gently touch Stretch’s cheek bone when Sans grabbed your hand suddenly and kept you from touching the orange hoodied skeleton.

“fill blue in on what we found out,” Sans said easily to Red before looking at you. His smile was strained, “c’mon study buddy.”

Sans took a shortcut suddenly, holding your wrist tighter as you sunk into the void with him. You shook as everything fell away. You looked at him nervously before reaching out to him with your other hand.

You held onto his hoodie until there was a solid floor beneath your feet once more. You sucked in a breath as you looked around, realizing you were in the library.

“ya good kid?” Sans asked, keeping you steady with his hold on his wrist.

His magic tingled on your bare wrist as you looked up at him.

“Why’d you do that? I was trying to help him,” Did Sans not trust you? Did they not want you anymore?

You felt like throwing up as anxiety hit you in the stomach.

Did Stretch not want you around anymore?

“hey, calm down,” Sans voice snapped you back to reality, “we just found out some bad news that’s all.”

Sans sauntered over to one of the many bookshelves to begin looking through it. Almost too easily, he pulled out a book and tossed it to you.

You caught it easily and shivered at the angered feelings attached to it. You quickly set it on the table and look over at Sans.

“What’s going on? What bad news are you-”

“catch,” Sans tossed another book to you.

You made sure to catch it with your gloved hand and put it on the table. You pull on your other glove with a small sigh.

“Sans, what are you trying to hide?” You asked.

Sans sighed, his hand landing on another book.

“it’s really nothing for ya to worry about kid, ya got enough on your plate,” Sans said as he walked over to the table and sat with the last book.

He was quiet and staring down at the book, picking at the cover. You take a moment to look around the library. It was in the front of the house and had a large bay window with a reading nook built into it. There was a fireplace and a couch and a couple recliners around it. There were bookshelves lining the back walls and a couple shelves in front of those. In the corner, where you and Sans were, was a table with a few chairs.

“I…” You hesitate before you sit beside Sans, you reach for his hand but grab onto the edge of his hoodie sleeve instead, “I just want to help. That’s all.”

Sans stares at you hard. He was considering you. His eyelights trailed down to the center of your chest. He looked at your soul. Your little green soul that was so dim. It was much dimmer than when he had first met you.

You weren’t like other humans.

Sans believed the human expression was that you ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’. Monsters could inherently see humans soul. But, if humans chose to hide themselves or even go against their main trait by whatever circumstance, it was much harder to see. Sans and all the Judges could look past this to see a human’s soul. Sometimes it took some work, but it could be done.

He didn’t have to work at all to see your soul. He didn’t have to concentrate, he didn’t have to search you, he didn’t have to Judge you. You showed yourself to them, to everybody, constantly. It was like you had to. He couldn’t tell if you choose to or if you were just like this.

You were the first human he had ever encountered like this. You were the first to be so open with them, even with the risks to yourself. He had expected you to close up after the attempt on your life, but you were still open. You were showing them your wound out of trust.

It brought such strange feelings out of Sans. Out of them all. It made Sans want to protect you, like Stretch. Blue felt some kinship with you, that Sans could tell but it went deeper than that. Papyrus couldn’t stop talking about you, talking about how pretty your soul was and how much your cared for Blue. Edge refused to say anything about you, while Red wouldn’t shut up about how stupid you were for not installing some kind of lock on your door or having anything on your person to protect yourself.

A human had never gotten into their midst in this way.

It makes knowing what he did hurt so much more. You were an honest, good soul that deserved a better life than you were living.

“paps is gonna ask ya to stay while you treat blue,” Sans decided to say, turning away from you.

You look at Sans confused by the sudden topic change.

“I-”

“he spent most of the morning gettin’ you a room set up and he wants to have a sleepover with you and blue,” Sans interrupted you, “it’s not a big deal for ya to stay with us, long as ya don’t mind eating what my bro cooks. we mostly eat spaghetti, or tacos, or lasagna.” Was he rambling? Sans didn’t ramble, he told himself as he found himself still talking while staring down a book and flipping it open, “if ya don’t like that stuff, it’s fine. honestly, red, stretch, and i sneak out to grillby’s for some grub a couple times a week. you could come along if you want,” Sans felt his soul clenched tightly. Why weren’t you saying anything? Why was he talking so much? Why was he too scared to look at your soul to see how you were feeling right now? “if you aren’t comfortable with that though, we can just bring you back something,” Sans felt his normally casual stance ebb away in front of you as he tensed up and his smile became more strained, “it’s a lot safer around here, no one would mess with ya around here. not with all us around. edge is apart of the royal guard too so someone tryin’ to mess with you here ain’t happenin’ unless they’re a complete idiot-”

His soul was thumping so loud, its normal lazy hum beating almost erratically. He couldn’t understand why he was reacting like this to you. To a human. To a mage.

He didn’t understand why your ungloved hand was holding his suddenly. He stopped talking when you grabbed his hand. He held onto your hand tightly. He still couldn’t bring himself to look at you as his soul beat uncomfortably in his chest.

Was he shaking?

Could you tell?

“Sans, I’d like to stay with you guys. You don’t have to be scared,” You said quietly.

You pulled your glove off your other hand and hold his hand with both of yours. Your little thumb rubbed over the grooves in his hand.

Sans wasn’t scared. He didn’t get scared. Not anymore. He wasn’t scared.

He wasn’t scared that he almost lost part of his family. He wasn’t scared that Blue was almost gone. There would be no way Blue would fall to something like this. You wouldn’t let it happen to him.

Sans was scared. He had to rely on someone to take care of his family because he couldn’t do it. Stretch couldn’t even bring Blue back to his senses after the last failed Memory Link. 

What about after? What about after you do the Memory Link with Blue and they took you away? What if Blue started to fall again and they couldn’t get you to him?

You were so small, you were tiny and defenseless and you have made yourself like that. You had become so important to their small family and he didn’t want to lose the security you brought when you were around.

“Sans, you need to breathe deep, everything is okay,” You said softly, stroking his arm gently while one hand still held his.

Shit, he was fucking breaking down in front of you.

Sans first instinct was to pull away from you. He covered his eye sockets with one hand and readied himself to pull his arm away from you and take a shortcut to his room to deal with this himself.

But then he felt your magic touch his bones through his jacket. It was warm and soft. He could faintly smell cinnamon and jasmine. It was such a strange mixture yet he found it so comforting. It made him stay rather than pull away.

“I know things are, well, things are kinda shit right now,” You spoke so quietly, “But things will get better. They have to. It’s just how life works. Things suck, things get better. You just gotta work through this to get to the better part.”

Your magic reached out to him tentatively. He hesitated before accepting. Your magic washed over him, drowning out the anxiety as he felt what you had before. In a life you had when he was still in the underground. He felt strange as you showed him pieces of happiness from your life. It wasn’t overwhelming. It took a few minutes in this meditative state the two of you entered together for him to understand what you were showing him. How happy you could be in the hardest times of your life. He couldn’t discern exactly how these feelings came about in you, but it made him feel better.

Things did eventually get better. He was a Patient soul, he could wait it out.

But he was rare in that he had two soul traits.

And the Judge in him would not let the people who hurt you be allowed to get away with it if he could help it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 6,345 words. Hopefully, it was worth the wait for you guys! A deeper look into Reader's life and reactions from Stretch and Sans. Leave comments to fill me with determination as I work on the next chapter! Thank you guys so much for reading, it really makes me happy! I've seen people ask if this is a reverse harem fic...It didn't start that way and honestly, I'm letting it play out as it does without forcing anything. But I'm curious, who would you like the Reader to end up with?


	5. ...What?

When Blue walked into the library, newly burdened with the information of what it meant to be ‘acquired by the government’, he looked to you. You were sitting at a chair at the table, reading through a book and taking notes down. He noticed Sans was laying on the couch, arm over his sockets and in a deep sleep.

“It Seems Lazy Bones Has Left All The Work To You,” Blue sighed as he walked over to you. 

You looked up at him with a smile though. You looked tired. The notebook on your right was filled with notes. He worried about how hard you were working.

“It’s okay Blue, he helped me find the books I needed. They’re really amazing! Not really directed towards a specific mage in particular but it’s really interesting. I’m working on a chapter talking about balancing one’s magic-”

Blue smiled as you rambled on about magic. He may have already known this. Infact, he had since he was a baby bones practically. But this was new for you and exciting. He wouldn’t take that from you or take that passion from your eyes. He loved seeing it.

Blue sat with you, listening to you talk about things he had always known but you had just discovered, watched the way your eyes lit up when you spoke of something you believed to be particularly exciting, and listened to the hum of your soul.

When you grabbed his hand in excitement and scooted closer to him, flipping through the book to show him something specific, he felt magic rush to his cheeks. With a big smile though, he wrapped his arm around your shoulders and leaned in close to the book, enjoying being close to you.

You kept talking, and talking. Going over so much information that Blue was confused as to how you had picked up on so much so quickly in the hour he had left you alone. You flipped through your notes and through the book. Blue asked you a question and could only smile when you turned to the book and flipped through it, unconsciously leaning into Blue as you started your studying once more.

Blue rubbed your shoulder softly as you leaned into him to read the passages in the book you had placed in front of him. You would scribble notes down without looking at your notebook yet you stayed inside the lines. Your notes were, well, very scribbled but Blue couldn’t help but to think it was adorable. You were so determined to help him. To keep him safe.

Blue tightened his hold on your shoulder for a moment.

He would repay you. He would keep you safe, and close, and happy.

He was determined with stars in his eyes.

\----------------------

“MISS (Y/N), BLUE, BROTHER!” Papyrus popped his head into the library a few hours later, “DINNER IS COMPLETED! PLEASE COME TO THE DINNER TABLE!”

Blue looked over at his brother’s look-a-like with a big smile and nodded.

“I’ll Get These Two To The Table!” Blue gave him a thumbs up.

“THANK YOU BLUEBERRY!” Papyrus looked excited as he scampered off to the dining room.

Blue looked back to you, still so focused you hadn’t even noticed your name being called nor the exchange. Blue let loose a soft ‘myeh-heh-heh’. He rubbed your shoulder again as he spoke to you.

“Come Along, We Need To Wake Lazy M-, Uh, Cousin!” Blue said, smiling brightly despite his almost slip up.

You looked up at Blue. You looked even more tired than before. Blue knew some food would do some good though.

“Oh, um, okay,” You looked hesitant to leave your work which only made Blue chuckle.

He pulled you up easily and held your hand as you both walked over to Sans. The skeleton was still napping on the couch. Blue shook his shoulder but, as he suspected, Sans didn’t even budge.

With a small sigh, Blue let go of you hand and hauled up the bigger version of himself and carried him to the dining room easily.

You couldn’t help but giggle, watching Blue and following him as he grumbled about the ‘lazy-bones’.

The dining room was mostly full already. Red was sitting at the table, texting someone on his phone and grumbling to himself. Edge was setting down plates full of food at chairs and looked up when you came in with Blue and Sans.

“UGH!” Edge scoffed loudly seeing Blue carry Sans, “You Should Have Allowed Him To Sleep Through Dinner If He Refused To Wake Up!”

“Maybe On Any Other Night, But Not When We Have A Guest!” Blue proclaimed, raising a hand to point up as if that made his point any more solid.

This left Sans feet to fall on the ground.

“ugh, blue, ya dropped me,” Sans groaned, leaning to stand up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and took a step away from Blue.

“It takes putting you on your feet to wake up huh?” You asked with an amused smile on your face.

“hehe, what can i say? waking up deserves a  _ standing  _ ovation,” Sans pushed his hands in his pockets and smiled at you.

You were happy. He seemed like he felt easier around you. Like he accepted you in a strange way.

“BROTHER, YOU LOOK REMARKABLY WELL RESTED! I’M GLAD TO SEE THAT NAP DID SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE FOR ONCE!” Papyrus said, entering the room with plates of spaghetti draped over his arms.

He went setting out the plates in their proper places as Stretch appeared next to you. The tall skeleton didn’t hesitate to lean over, placing his arms on your shoulders and pressing his forehead to the back of your head.

“Hey Stretch, you feeling okay?” You asked worriedly but don’t move so he could rest on you for the moment.

“feelin’ abit  _ regretti  _ over making you worry earlier but i’m okay. sorry if i scared you earlier honey,” He said softly.

“Brother! A Pun With An Apology Makes It Mean Less!” Blue puffed up his chest.

You giggle at him but said, “An apology isn’t necessary but I thought that was a good one.”

“Don’t Encourage Them Human!” Edge said, taking his place by his brother. Edge sipped some wine as he continued, “If You Get Them Started, They Won’t Stop For Days.”

Stretch sighed quietly and stood straight...into a slouch and patted your shoulder before pulling you closer to the table. Blue pulled out a chair for you, making you blush.

When had anyone pulled out a chair for you? When was the last time you had a home cooked meal?

Rather than dwelling on the past, you sat down and smiled up at Blue.

“Thanks Blue,” You say as he sits beside you. 

Stretch sat on the other side of you. Sans and Papyrus sat across from the three of you while Edge and Red sat on their left.

Unfortunately for Edge, the punning had been started and seem to have no end between Sans, Stretch, and Red.

You ate in between your giggles at the better puns, which seemed to only egg the three on. You didn’t notice that fact however, you were just happy that Stretch was getting in better spirits with every pun he flung out.

The conversation lulled in the middle of the meal and Edge took this time to address you.

“What Division Were You In During The War?” Edge asked you, surprising you.

“Oh, um,” You started but Blue cut you off.

“I Don’t Think That’s Really A Good Conversation Edge,” Blue said, his smile seeming strained.

You smiled and touched Blue’s arm.

“It’s okay, it’s not like its taboo for me to talk about,” You tell Blue before you look to Edge, “We weren’t technically a Division. There weren’t enough of us, even all the mages together. So we were classified as a Battalion. There were less than a thousand of us on the ground back throughout the war. I heard they started calling us the M Division though at some point.”

Edge nodded, seeming satisfied with this.

“I Imagine With How Spread Out The Mages Were, You Were Never Given A Proper Place,” Edge said.

You nodded, swirling some noodles on your fork, “It was rare for them to send out even just a proper troop of us. Most of the time it was two Justice mages, two Bravery mages, two Integrity mages, then either a Kind mage or a Persevering mage for healing.”

“I Remember Most Of The Healing Types Were Left At Bases More Often Than Not.”

“Oh, you were there during the war?” You weren’t very surprised by that as you eat some more of the delicious cooking.

“Yes, I Was Incharge Of The 2nd Monster Division,” Edge smirked.

“I remember that,” You couldn’t help your giggle, “My colonel nearly crapped himself when he saw all the fell monsters being led into battle. The battle of Cox Valley,” Edge laughed and pointed at you.

“You Mean That Large Mage? The One With The Red Stripes In His Hair?”

“Yeah, that was Colonel Max. We called him Maxi Pad ‘cause he use to carry them on him! He thought it would get him laid. The guy was nuts! Always with this bravado that he could do anything. We were losing ground, couldn’t gain any of it back, then he saw fell monsters come over the hill and he went paler than a ghost!”

The rest of the table could only stare between you and Edge as you both laughed over an old war story.

“Oh, jeez, that man was just not suited for war,” You giggled once more, “More focused on women rather than the battle. Everytime.” You shake your head.

“I Remember That Man Well. After The Battle, I Simply Walked By Him And He Got The Exact Same Look On His Face!” Edge snickered and sipped his wine.

“Were you there at base when Colonel Riggins had his, ah, most precious belonging stolen?” You had to ask.

“That Was The Skinny Mage With A Large Mustache, A Perservance If I Remember Correctly? He Lined The Entire Mage Division Outside At Seven In The Morning. I Never Found Out What For.”

“Oh, you missed out,” You chuckled, “I had some friends, Reynolds and Mary. They were in my troop for a while and one of ours got hurt so we were stuck at base for a while and it was right before things got bad at base so I really feel bad for Riggins now, cause we couldn’t guess this ya know?” You sipped at your water, “Well, Riggins was running basic training drills and Reynolds couldn’t stand it. Kept going on and on about it while drinkin’ whiskey the night before in the lunch tent. Mary and I went to bed, thinking nothing of it. Reynolds just yelling and crying about nothing.”

You could barely contain your laugh now, “Reynolds sneaks in the tent and wakes us up in the middle of the night, and he’s got something in his hand. It’s Riggins friggin’ mustache!”

Edge barked out a loud laugh and slammed his hand on the table.

“Reynolds got so drunk and mad he snuck in the Colonel’s tent and just snipped it right off him! He was so proud!” You covered your mouth.

“Did The Colonel Find Out The Next Morning?”

“Oh, in the best way. We got called for the line up,” You giggled again, “And Reynolds had glued the damn mustache on his face,” You felt proud as others at the table laughed with you and Edge, “He stared Riggins down with his own mustache! Oh stars!”

Stretch wrapped his arm around your shoulders as he laughed. You looked around the table in pure glee as you saw Sans and Red laughing so hard the magic pooled in their cheeks, Blue was giggling and Paps was trying not to laugh but he was finding it hard not to. Edge’s shoulders worked up and down as he laughed.

At least something good came out of the war for you. At least you had some decent stories.

\-------------

After dinner, you offered to help clean up but Papyrus and Blue refused to let you help. You started making your way back to the library when Stretch slipped his arm around your shoulders and started guiding you upstairs instead.

“relax honey, you’ve got plenty of time and you haven’t seen your room yet. papyrus wanted me to show you,” Stretch said as he climbed the stairs with you.

“Yeah, okay but I wanted to-” You tried to point back to the library but Stretch instead wrapped an arm around your middle and pulled you to his side before he took a shortcut the rest of the way.

It was as fast as when Sans made you take a shortcut with him earlier. You quickly held onto Stretch’s hoodie and buried your face in his side. You didn’t like this darkness. The nothingness of the space in between spaces bothered you.

Stretch landed in front of the door in front of your room and smiled down at you. You peered up at him and smiled softly. You did like the excuse to be closer to Stretch or Sans whenever they took a shortcut. It made going through that darkness more than worth it. You trusted them both to take care of you in those little trips.

Stretch reached and opened the door to your room and let go of you.

“hope ya like it, paps looked up a bunch of stuff about empaths and said he tried to fill the room with as much positive stuff as he could.”

You looked in and stopped.

The room was bigger than your apartment. The bed was covered in a plain comforter but had a beautiful green quilt over it. There were fluffy pillows on the bed. The room was freshly painted with a light green paint. The walls had a few posters of bones and motivational sayings handmade.

There was some gaming system hooked up to a tv on the far wall. There were windows and a small reading nook tucked under one of them. It was homey. It was cuddly.

It was too much.

“I, uh, I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble,” You say uneasily, not stepping in the room.

“paps loves doing this stuff so it’s no trouble,” Stretch said, watching you carefully, “ya not like it?”

“No, no! It’s amazing and beautiful and…”

_ I don’t deserve this. _

“you deserve this,” Stretch said, as if he could read his thoughts, “you helped us out alot, this is the least we can do.”

“You guys don’t owe me anything for helping Blue,” You say quickly, not looking up at Stretch. The room was too much to look at for you so you looked down at the floor.

There was a cute rug beside the bed. Papyrus had really thought of everything to make you as comfortable as possible.

Stretch set a hand on your shoulder.

“we aren’t doin’ this cause we think we owe you honey, we’re doing it cause you’re our friend and we want you to be comfy here.”

“We’re really friends?” You asked before you could stop yourself. You felt tears well up in your eyes at the thought.

“ ‘course we are honey, and it’s not ‘cause of anything you did. it’s ‘cause of who you are,” Stretch smiled down at you and pulled you into a half hug.

You turned and hugged him tightly around his middle.

“Thank you Stretch,” You sniffled in his hoodie.

“i didn’t do any of the work,” Stretch chuckled.

You smiled up at him before you turned and went down the stairs quickly. You went back to the kitchen, feeling lighter with every step. You passed by Edge and Sans talking and flashed them a smile before continuing to the kitchen.

You didn’t notice the blush on Sans’ face from your smile. Edge just smirked when he saw your soul glowing brighter.

You ran into the kitchen as Papyrus was putting away some clean dishes. You ran over to him and held your arms out to him.

“Thank you so much for putting so much thought into the room Papyrus, I really love it!”

Papyrus looked at you surprised, then threw the plate behind him, surprising you as it crashed on the ground. Papyrus pulled you into another bone crushing hug and you hugged him around his neck tightly.

“ANYTHING FOR MY FRIEND’S FRIEND!” Papyrus said with a big smile.

“Papyrus, I want to be your friend too,” You couldn’t help your smile as you hugged him tighter. You saw Blue and showed him your big smile that he returned. Blue gave you a thumbs up as Papyrus squeeze you tighter.

“THEN OF COURSE WE’RE FRIENDS! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD LIKE NOTHING MORE THAN THIS!”

\---------

After nearly suffocating in Papyrus’ hug, you walked back with Blue. You passed through the living room and you planned on heading back to the library to keep up with your studying. Blue stopped you by holding your hand and stopping.

“It’s Family Movie Night!” Blue said excitedly, “I’d Really Like It If You Joined Us.”

“Oh, um, well Blue I should,” You hesitate when Blue gave you a big smile, “I should get back to-” Blue’s smile just got bigger, “I mean I should-” You tried to look away but Blue stepped closer to you and you could feel his giddiness, “Yeah, Blue, I would really like to join you guys if you don’t mind.”

You spoke honestly and with a smile. Blue got stars in his eyes and you couldn’t help your blush. Blue was really adorable when he got excited.

He pulled you onto the couch as Edge and Papyrus walked in the room. Edge sat in a recliner, another glass of wine in his hand. Papyrus went to the collection of DvDs and BluRays.

“BLUE, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO WATCH? SINCE IT’S YOUR FIRST NIGHT BACK HOME, I THINK YOU SHOULD GET THE HONOR OF PICKING THE MOVIE,” Papyrus said, smiling back at the two of you.

As Blue and Papyrus started discussing movies, you eased back into the couch. Stretch and Sans took a shortcut and stood behind the couch. You peered up at them and blinked when you heard Red yell out: “you motherfuckers! leaving me to carry all this shit!”

You giggled hearing Red yell and Sans and Stretch snickered along with you. Sans sat on the other couch, lounging back comfortably while Stretch sat next to you. Red came into the living room, carrying a bowl of popcorn and a case of soda.

He was still grumbling as he set it down on the coffee table in front of you and sat back in a recliner, stretching it out and kicking his legs up.

“what are we watchin’ already?” Red asked, peering over at Blue.

“We’re In Between Napstabot And Mettaton Special And The Mettaton And Napstabot Special,” Blue said with a hand to his chin, in an almost identical pose to Papyrus’ as they considered the movies.

Red rolled his eyes and leaned back, closing his eyes instead. Sans just chuckled and tilted his head back, doing the same.

“WHICH ONE WOULD YOU PREFER NEW HUMAN FRIEND?” Papyrus turned to you.

“Oh, um, I’ve never seen either so-”

“THEN WE SHALL WATCH BOTH!” Papyrus cheerfully ‘Nyeh-heh-heh’ed as he popped in the first movie.

You could only smile at his happy demeanor as you settled in for the movie.

The first movie was...very dramatic. You couldn’t say either were very good actors but you loved the music and found some joy in that. There wasn’t much talking during the movie. Your eyelids grew heavier as the movie went on. At some point, you were leaning on Blue, your head on his shoulder as you watched with him.

As the second movie started, someone shut off the lights and you tried to stay focused on the movie, but at some point, you fell asleep.

Stretch noticed it first and he could only smile at you and his brother. As soon as Blue noticed, he leaned back more on the couch and allowed your head to lay on his chest. Blue set his legs on Stretch’s lap and Stretch pulled your legs in his lap as well, allowing you to fully lay on the couch and snuggle into his brother’s chest.

It was a good night.

\-----------------------

You woke up in your bed the next morning. The quilt was at your shoulders and you had a hard time keeping your eyes open. Everything in you just wanted to sleep. When was the last time you had been so comfortable but not surrounded by skeletons? It was a peaceful, yet somewhat selfish moment that you reveled in. 

You could hear someone talking outside your door, but rather than concern yourself about it, you fell back asleep.

You dreamt of the war, of memories that felt impossible to piece together properly.

You had been too close to a flash grenade and your eyes had gotten bad flash burn. You couldn’t heal yourself. Other Green mages could, but you couldn’t. You never understood why and it made things much more difficult for you in the war.

You had to rely on your hearing. You called for those in your troop.

You called for Riggins.

You called for Reynolds.

You called for Mary.

But no one came.

You reached out with your magic but you could only feel bodies. Cold, empty, nothingness. Husks that might have been your friends. You couldn’t tell. You couldn’t breathe. You reached out with your magic, trying to find anything, anyone.

You came across something finally. Your magic found a monster soul.

You kept your hands out and worked your way towards the monster.

When you finally found them, they were angry and yelling, screaming almost. Barking orders. It was then that you realized you weren’t hearing things properly.

You became terrified. You were useless. You couldn’t see, you couldn’t hear more than muffled voices. Would they leave you?

But you passed out then.

When you passed out in your dream, you shot up in the bed, patting your chest and stomach, looking for the bleeding, looking for the holes.

No holes.

No blood.

You looked around, realizing you were at Blue’s house. You were going to treat him.

Well, you decided that you weren’t going to treat him covered in sweat and reeking of this nightmare. You got up and found the little plastic bag with your clothes in it. You showered quickly and took care of your business before pulling on your paramedic team pants and pulled on a white tank top. You stared at the marks on your shoulder and the scar a bullet had left in your right shoulder. You sighed and pulled on your sweatshirt with your patches sewn into the arms.

You’d have to go back at some point and grab some more clothes, you were already out of clean tops that would cover your scars and you didn’t want to wear this sweatshirt constantly.

You walked out of the bathroom and right into someone’s chest. You looked up and found yourself staring up at Red.

“ya fuckin’ done already?” Red huffed at you. He had deep bags under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept.

“Um, yeah? Sorry if I was hogging the bathroom-” You try to apologize when Red grabbed your arm.

You were suddenly taking a shortcut with him. You shake seeing the darkness and quickly latch onto his jacket out of habit.

Holding onto Red was very different compared to holding onto the others. Red was overwhelmingly warm. Like holding onto a spark or ember. He easily had the ability to hurt you but he held himself back. Strangely, it made you feel safe. Red was annoyed, you could feel that easily, but when you held onto him, you didn’t feel any strong emotions from him.

Which shocked you.

Red had his own block that none of the others did. It made you worry. It wasn’t good to hold too much back.

You could look past it if he allowed you to but he wasn’t letting you. He was making a conscious choice to block you out. It left you confused. How did he know how to do that?

You were pulled from your thoughts by Red tapping the back of your head. 

“we’re here doll,” He chuckled, keeping his hands off you other than the taps.

Fell monsters weren’t very touchy, you knew this from experience. But you still found Red’s behavior strange as he purposely kept his hands off you as you pulled away.

“Sorry, I’m use to more of a warning before, uh, that,” You admitted, looking away embarrassed.

“don’t worry about it, jus’ needed ta get ya down for breakfast. boss was about to freak about startin’ without ya,” Red said, before walking into the dining room.

“Sorry,” You mutter to him, quickly walking behind him.

You couldn’t help but smile at those in the dining room.

\----------------

You were alone in the library, quietly working by yourself. Blue was working out with Papyrus today so he explained he would join you afterwards.

You didn’t mind being alone. It’s not like Blue kept you from focusing anyways, which you were thankful for. You just wanted to find out as much as you could. Everything you took in now would help Blue later, that thought alone kept you determined.

“heya kid,” Sans appeared next to you, a couple of hot dogs on a plate but you didn’t notice. You didn’t look up from your notes.

“Hey Sans, I think I found something!” You said quickly.

“oh?” Sans moved to sit next to you, setting your lunch by your notes.

“It was called the Witness Ceremony. It was done with both a Green mage and, get this, a Judge Monster!” You smiled up at him.

“wait, what?” Sans leaned in to look over your shoulder.

You quickly turn the pages to the beginning of the section.

“It was really old. Predates the war by centuries according to this. The Green Mage would act as a catalyst for the Judge. If the accused refused to speak or hid their crimes and refused to admit it and was high enough in ranking, the King would call for the Witness Ceremony to prove without a doubt that the accused was guilty!” You say quickly as Sans read over the passages quickly.

“why didn’t i know about this?” He mumbled to himself.

“Probably because before the war, most of the Green mages that could perform this witness ceremony were killed by a King. Someone put a note in between the next two pages,” You showed him by flipping the page.

Sans jumped when he saw it and frowned. He recognized this handwriting.

_ how the fuck is this here? how can she read this? _

Sans held the note with a trembling hand before putting it back in the book quickly and flipping a few pages ahead.

“You okay?” You asked worriedly, “You looked...concerned seeing that note?”

“it’s nothing kid, just haven’t seen it before,” Sans said, not entirely lying.

“Well, you said you hadn’t read through these since you were a kid,” You said softly.

Sans looked up at you and smiled casually, “don’t worry about me, you’re right, just haven’t picked these up in a while.”

Sans’ eye lights casually flicked through the passages then blushed brightly.

“uh, kid, how much of this have you read?”

“I just found it before you came in,” You said, writing a few things in your notes, “Why?”

“it says the mage and the monster were usually soul bonded.”

“Woah really?!” You moved to look over Sans’ shoulder, “So there were monster human relationships back then? I never realized that happened back then.”

Sans shook his head, reading over the passage again. The gist of it that he understood is that it was an arranged marriage made by the king’s court whenever a boss level green mage was found. Typically, it was a woman. The king of monsters would then throw a party and boss level monsters were invited to court the green mage.

How had he never heard of this? He needed to talk to Stretch and Red and see if either of them ever had.

“why are ya so excited about this kid?” Sans found himself asking.

“From what I can tell from the details, its alot less dangerous. It’s nearly safe,” You pulled out your notes to show him, “We’re going to need some things. I’ll have to see if I can find it all but the ceremony uses different objects to feed emotions into so that neither the accused, the mage, or the judge could be overwhelmed and dragged into a catatonic state from the memory. I think I can figure out how to use the objects as a filter like they did, even without the Judge monster.”

Sans stared at you for a moment then breathed easier.

Blue would really be safe in your hands. He had recognized this before but his soul hummed easier now. You would do anything to keep his family safe and Sans found himself trusting you more with this.

“what do ya need kid?”

\----------------

Stretch had been acting a little strange since you left the house. Then again, so had Red and Sans. The three of them decided to come with you after you got the shopping list together of things you would need to treat Blue.

It wasn’t that you didn’t want them there, in all honesty, you felt much safer with the three of them around you. You hadn’t been out of the house or the Comfort Home by yourself since the traffic incident so you were nervous. But you pushed that down to keep yourself aware instead. The training you had in the military had done some good for you. They had trained you how to be aware of danger in your surroundings. Urban survival compared to combat survival was very different, but you would have to adapt if there were still people after you.

Red was on your left and Sans was on your right. Stretch kept a casual arm around your shoulders as your party moved down the sidewalk.

Stretch and Red were speaking of something as you all came to a busy crosswalk. You tensed up and Sans moved closer to you as you waited for the light to change. You felt Stretch’s hand grip your shoulder tighter. Waiting for the light to change seem to take hours. When it finally did, you all breathed a sigh of relief and kept walking.

You walked into a grocery store with your skeleton crew. You walked quickly to the condiment aisle and surveyed some of the things. One of the things you needed was Himalyan salt. Big pieces. You weren’t going to get the big pieces out of these little grinders though.

“you said big pieces, about how big?” Sans asked, standing over your crouched position.

“A few pieces that are about the size of this bottle. The bigger the better,” You answered, grabbing some seasonings instead.

You put the clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the basket Stretch was holding.

“we makin’ a fuckin’ pie?” Red asked, staring down at the seasonings.

“Nah, the powders is the first in line. They soak up the most erratic emotion before the second in line comes into play, which was the liquids. We’ll need some basic wine, spring water, and a liquor,” You smiled over at Red.

He threw his hands up in response.

“what the fuck is with human magic? all this extra shit?” Red grumbled as he followed you and the others to another aisle.

“From what I can tell, humans are more powerful magical but are pretty dumb when it comes to filtering or using magic. We’re greedy and suck up as much of it as we can, even the stuff we shouldn’t. That’s why there are these filters. So, I won’t hold onto all of the negative emotions that are going to be coming from the memory. In the end, I either have to hold onto the negative emotions or bounce them back to Blue. This way, we’ll be able to do the Link and not have as many repercussions if something goes wrong,” You explain, grabbing a few bottles of water and smiling as Sans walked up with some red wine.

“we’ll have to hide this so edge doesn’t drink it,” Sans said, setting the bottle in the basket.

“boss doesn’t drink anything that ain’t from grillbs,” Red frowned.

“right, right and i don’t smoke human cigs,” Stretch smirked down at Red.

“he don’t!”

\-----------

Three stores later and you had all you needed. Except for the Himalyan salt. It was important, the center piece. It could hold the most emotion and even had the ability to turn it into positive energy.

You were stumped as to where you would get the salt before Stretch came up with an idea. He said he had seen a himalyan salt cutting board at a store in the strip mall before. It wasn’t a long walk but the strip mall was really crowded.

With a nervous sigh, you quickly fitted your gloves on your hands and walked forward with the guys. Stretch kept his arm around your shoulders as you walked through the crowd.

You didn’t like how this place felt. You were getting negative emotions and it was suffocating. It reminded you of the war.

You pressed on and went into the store. It was a small shop and specialized in culinary items. Sans and Red walked ahead to talk to the cashier about where the cutting board would be while you and Stretch hung back.

“what’s wrong honey?” Stretch asked casually, seeming casual as he looked through some items on the shelves.

“Just got a bad feeling. I can’t pinpoint it and it’s bothering me. Been following for the last two blocks,” You whisper and pick up a garlic masher to pretend to look at.

“if they come in could you-”

“They’re not gonna come in,” You looked at the window with a sidelook, “They’re not dumb enough to go against orders.”

“you think it could be OBF?” Stretch leaned closer to you, pulling you closer.

“I don’t know,” You say honestly, “I don’t know who it is. I just know they’re not friendly and they haven’t decided what they want to do yet.”

“heya guys,” Sans held up the cutting board he finished buying, Red trailing behind him, “ready to go?” Sans quirked up his brow seeing your look.

“honey thinks someone has been trailing us for a couple of blocks, don’t seem friendly,” Stretch answered.

“if you can point ‘em out doll, i can handle ‘em,” Red smirked, eagerly looking out the window.

You quickly grab his jacket sleeve, “That would be a really bad idea Red. We don’t know who it is. If it’s the Front, they won’t hesitate to do to you what they did.”

“i’ve seen shit doll, that ain’t gonna matter-”

“It mattered to Greater Dog! He was a Fell monster and he fell down hard and fast, two minutes after I arrived,” You hissed at Red, “You aren’t invincible. We don’t know who’s out there, we need to go.”

“i can handle this shit-” Red started getting angry with you. But you held onto his jacket tighter.

“I am not explaining to Blue and Edge that you fell down because I let you walk into a battle without knowing shit! We can’t fight if we don’t know who we’re fighting.” You took a deep breath and stared up into Red’s angry eyelight, “Please, let’s just go home.”

Red stared at you, giving off angry, hot waves of emotion. You knew you hit low but you wanted him to live.

“honey is right, let’s just get out of here,”

“think we lost the chance,” Sans spoke quietly, staring out the window as three men came in the store.

They separated, one staying by the door and the two others going to opposite sides of the store.

“Shit,” You mumbled, “Can’t we shortcut?”

“let’s not jump the gun here kid,” Sans put a hand on your shoulder, before trailing his hand down your arm that was holding onto Red’s jacket.

You hesitated before letting go of Red’s sleeve. Sans gave you a smile and held your wrist softly before pulling your glove off.

“things are gonna be just fine, nothing is gonna happen,” Sans spoke easily, not keeping his words low like before. You stared at him confused as he pulled off your other glove and handed them to you. “everything is going to be fine. we’re gonna walk out of here and go home.”

Sans pulled you under his arm and kept his arm around your shoulders. His hand gripped your shoulder tightly as you felt something wash over you suddenly.

You couldn’t describe it as anything but  _ power _ . Pure power that came in a sudden wave. It was dominating and it made a small part of you terrified. You covered your mouth to hold back a whimper.

“it’s okay (y/n), we’re just gonna walk home,” Sans said soothingly to you.

Your knees were shaking, as if there were a gravity magic was pushing down on you. It was suffocating.

Sans slipped his arm around you waist and kept you up as you walked out.

The man by the door just stared at Sans in shock. Sans kept up his casual attitude and winked at the man before leaving the store with you on his side and Red and Stretch in tow.

After leaving the store, Sans led you down a small alley and you clung to him as he took you both through a shortcut.

You felt dizzy as you clung to Sans. You had no idea anyone could hold that kind of power, least of all Sans. He was, well, as Blue summed it up so perfectly, a total lazy bones. He cared for his family, you knew that well, but that sort of power? You expected something like that to come out of the king of monsters, not a skeletal boss monster.

Did all of them hide that kind of power?

\------------------

You were shaking against Sans when you landed in the living room with him and the others. Part of you wanted to run away from him, but another part of you wanted to curl up to him strangely.

“sorry kid, that was our best option,” Sans said, wrapping his arm around your shoulder.

You kept your head pressed into his shoulder and clung tightly to his jacket.

“I-I’m okay just, what, what the fuck was that?” You asked quietly.

“call it a power move,” Red said, frowning at Sans, “he sent out enough magical energy to scare the shit outta the bastards.”

“are you fucking nuts?!” Stretch yelled at Sans, tossing the bags he had been carrying on the couch, “do you even know what that could do to her!?”

“not really,” Sans said with a frown, “but it was the best way to protect her.”

You trembled as you felt anger rolling off Stretch in waves.

“she was right, we should have just taken a shortcut out!” Stretch came closer, glaring at Sans.

“it was our chance to show ‘em we aren’t rolling over for ‘em. we’re protecting her and they know that now. if they’re smart they won’t come after her again,” Sans said looking down at you.

He was trying to play it off but he was worried about you.

Stretch huffed and looked like he wanted to yell more but he set a hand on your lower back.

“c’mon honey, let’s go find blue,” Stretch said softly to you.

You moved, turning from Sans and hugging Stretch tightly around his middle.

“Please don’t be angry, he was just doing his best. I’m okay.” You said in his hoodie.

Stretch sighed softly and set a hand on your head and his other arm went around your shoulders. He didn’t say anything but glared at Sans once more before leading you upstairs.

\--------------

Blue had kept you wrapped up in his arms for a long time. You were both on his bed in his room. His room was adorable. You loved it and you felt safe here. You felt safer with Blue holding you like this. He held you differently from the other times you had fallen asleep together. You were in his lap, an arm wrapped around his waist and one hand on his chest by your head. One of his arms was around you waist and the other was more or less tangled in your hair.

It felt very intimate.

Your face had been red since he pulled you into his lap.

Part of your mind is telling you to distant yourself from these feelings but, another, much more selfish part wanted you to hold onto Blue forever.

He truly cared for you, he was the first to in a very long time. He was an amazing monster and you honestly couldn’t think of a bad thing about him.

You never had a connection like this before and you honestly weren’t sure how to go about it. It’s not like you had many options. After this was all over, what could you do? Would you be able to visit him in between your doubles on the paramedic team? He would see you exhausted all the time. You knew it bothered him how people treated you and you knew there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

You sighed softly as you realized fully that there was no scenario that wouldn’t end badly for Blue.

So you listened to that part of your mind and pushed those feelings to the side and tried to relax against your friend.

“I’m Sorry He Did That While You Were Around,” Blue spoke softly. Stretch had filled his brother in when he delievered you to him in your trembling state.

Blue had taken you in his arms and cuddled up with you on his bed. Stretch had stayed for a while before he got a message on his phone and had to go.

“I’m okay Blue,” You said softly. You sat up and gave Blue a soft smile, “I’m not afraid of any of you guys, see?” You held up your hand.

Blue didn’t hesitate to take his hand from your hair and hold your hand, interlocking your fingers together. Your hands started to glow softly as you showed him that you meant what you said.

You showed him the confusion you felt at first, the small amount of fear, and then the understanding.

When you were done, Blue sighed softly, relieved. He let go of your hand and surprised you, pulling you closer and guiding your head to rest in the crook of your neck. He kept his hand cupping your cheek. Your blush was back as his other hand trailed down from your waist to your hip and rubbed slow, soothing circles there.

“I Just Want To Keep You Safe,” He said softly, “You’re...Very Important To Me.”

Your hand found its way to Blue’s chest again. You gripped his shirt softly as he spoke.

“I Want You To Be Happy Here, I Don’t Want You To Be Afraid.”

You felt yourself shiver as you felt something strange building in Blue. A certain confidence you hadn’t felt before, which was strange. Blue was always confident. His hand moved from your cheek to the back of your neck and he softly stroked there.

“I, I Care For You Very Much And-”

Blue looked down at you and you felt your heart stop for a beat. He started to lean closer to you, as he did, your hand trailed up his chest to place a soft touch to his neck.

He was going to kiss you.

Blue was going to kiss you.

**Blue ** was going to kiss  **you** .

Your heart was beating so fast, you forgot the decision you made just a few minutes ago as his teeth brushed over your lips once. You gasped at the tingle of magic that buzzed on your lips. You looked into Blue’s eyes, trembling with hope as he started to lean in again.

“hey, dinner will be ready in a bit and boss wants ta know if…”

Red took a shortcut into Blue’s room, catching sight of the two of you being intimately close. At the sight of Red, you turn your head into Blue’s shoulder and curled up into him as if to hide your body, not noticing the glare on Blue’s face.

Red would think this was funny later, Blue  _ glaring  _ at anyone would be hilarious. But for the moment, all Red’s instincts told him that he trespassed and Blue might’ve dusted him for it if he wasn’t holding you.

“i’mma jus’ tell boss ya both want wine!” Red coughed out before quickly leaving.

Blue sighed and set his forehead on your temple with a bright blue blush on his cheeks. The hand on your hip rubbed softly again. It eased you enough to uncurl and look up at Blue.

“Sorry, um, I uh…” Blue smiled as you stammered over your words.

“Don’t Be Sorry For Red. He Doesn’t Always Think Things Through,” Blue rolled his eyes at the thought of his cousin, making you giggle softly. He loved that little laugh. Everything you did was adorable to him. 

He wanted to show you. He wanted to show you his feelings but he had been scared before. You were in a hard place and he didn’t want to mess things up or make them more difficult for you by pushing his feelings on you.

But you hadn’t pulled away. You were leaning into him. You still hadn’t pulled away from him! Blue pressed his forehead to yours, so happy that you cared for him just as he cared for you.

“We should um, probably go downstairs,” You said softly, blushing so red Blue was a little worried for you.

“Of Course,” Blue smiled at you.

He let you get off his lap and followed you to the door.

Before you could open it, he wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you to him before leaning and kissing you softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone please tell me they understand the refrences to my favorite tv show in this. Please, I need the validation that I'm not old af.
> 
> I decided that this is not a reverse harem, this is blue/reader. It just works naturally. That being said, I am going to release other stories such as 'Magic Of A Mage: Classic Edition' In which Reader will end up with Sans. I plan on doing this for San and Red so far. There will be differences to this one of course. So if you don't mind, subscribe to me if you really like this story so you can see those when they come out? Thank you!
> 
> Any critical reviews? Please tell me! I'm constantly working on my writing style and such and I would love some comments about how this is playing out, how you guys feel about this, I love hearing what you guys have to say.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


	6. Memories Are A Strange Thing

_ This has to work. _

_ You grabbed another bomb, using gravity magic to secure it in place to a golden treetop as your brother did the same a little way away from you. _

_ Your sister was standing in the middle of you both, keeping an eye out for the monsters hot on your trail. _

_ Her eyes were glowing purple, using an ability known as Soul Sensing to keep track of where the monsters were and how far they were from the three of you. She had a Preserving Soul, meaning she could easily learn what you were calling specialties from others. She had learned Soul Sensing from you. _

_ The group the three of you had been traveling with should be at least two miles from you by now. _

_ Your mind was still spinning at what you had found in the ------. You couldn’t get caught now, with what you knew… _

_ All three of you knew it would surely mean death if the three of you were caught. _

_ You could not risk your brother and sister. They were both older than you, they insisted on protecting you. They both said it was important that you got out. But you knew, you knew deep in your soul that if they got caught… _

_ If they got caught… _

_ Your soul twisted in fear before you push it down and set up another bomb on another tree that was full of yellow leaves despite the snow under you. _

_ This has to work… _

_ \------------------- _

You sit up, gasping with tears streaming down your face. You look around your, the room Papyrus had set up for you. From the moonlight pouring in through the window, you knew it was still late.

You wrap the quilt around your shoulders and shake quietly in your borrowed bed.

You couldn’t help but wonder, as you stare out the window, where were your brother and sister now? Would they be disappointed in you? They said they would come back for you but…

It had been years since then. Since the yellow forest that you weren’t even sure existed anymore. Part of you was sure you had just imagined the whole thing. Afterall, you had a bad concussion when they finally got you.

You sniffle and rub your nose quietly. This was no good, thinking of them. They were safe somewhere in another country and you were stuck here. But, at least you had the skeleton family.

You had Blue.

You couldn’t help your smile when you thought of him.

Curling back down in your bed, you held a hand over your chest, bunching the fabric of your tank top in your fist as you push your thoughts to more positive things.

  
  


\-----------

This has to work.

You sigh quietly, marking the ground with chalk carefully. Luckily Sans didn’t mind you using the spare room in the basement for this. You had already practiced with Blue a few days ago, using Memory Link to walk through a memory of the Underground. It worked well enough but when you had gone through the memory with Blue, Stretch and Sans had picked up on some of the emotions while they were watching. You were worried about Stretch or Sans picking up some emotions again, so you were copying some sigils from a book that would bind negative emotions right into the chalk for easy clean up later. It should keep the magic and emotions you were skilled enough to control right now to stop from leaking out.

“heya,” Sans appeared in a corner of the room.

You looked up at him, unsurprised by his sudden appearance. You gave him a soft smile and stood up, carefully walking out of the circle.

“Hey, everyone waking up?”

“yeah, looks like you’ve been at work quite a while though,” He said, nodding to the chalk.

“Yeah, I don’t want you and Stretch picking up any leaks again,” You say, leaning on the wall next to him.

“how long ya been up kiddo?” He asked with a small frown.

You knew you weren’t looking your best. After the stress dream from last night, you hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. You had finally gotten up at five and gotten ready for the day before coming down here.

“I could ask you the same question,” You poked just under Sans’ eye socket, at one of the deep bags settling there.

Sans chuckled nervously and rubbed the spot.

“fair enough,” He shrugged at that.

“Nightmares keep you up?” You asked.

“yeah, old stuff from the underground. but it’s all over and done with,” He shrugged again.

“I get it,” You chuckled softly, staring at the chalk.

Sans gave you a questioning look, “yeah?” He sounded breathless and worried.

You smiled at him though.

“Yeah. It’s just over and done with,” You rub the back of your neck, “We should head upstairs, it sounds like everyone’s getting ready for breakfast yeah?”

“sure…” Sans walked beside you but couldn’t help staring at you.

Why did he feel like you actually understood what he meant by that? If you did, what could he do to help?

\------------

After breakfast, you were finishing up the chalk sigil.

“How’s it looking guys?” You asked, finishing another line.

You stood up and walked out of the circle.

“it looks just like the picture if that’s what you’re going for,” Sans said, holding the book out in front of him and looking between the chalk on the floor and the diagram you had followed.

“it’s perfect honey,” Stretch gave you a thumbs up.

The three of you heard three pairs of steps coming down the stairs. Blue came into the room first, his smile bright and wide seeing you. Behind him were Nathan and Gregory.

“It seems you’ve outdone yourself,” Greg said, looking at the sigil on the ground. 

“It’ll make things safer for everyone,” You explained, taking the powders from Sans and start pouring them in chalk circles closest to where you and Blue will be standing.

Afterward, you and Blue pour the liquids in wide-rimmed vases and set them into chalk circles a little further away. With Stretch’s help, you had been able to break the salt cutting board into three pieces. Luckily the guys had bought three of them so you had enough pieces to cover the outer rim of the circle and have enough pieces stacked in the middle that would stay between you and Blue.

“We’re good to go,” You said, giving the guys a thumbs up.

“Is all this really necessary?” Nathan asked, surveying over the sigil and ceremony.

“Only if you want everyone to live,” You say, giving him a pointed look.

“I’m just saying, I’ve seen Memory Link done before-”

“During the war, in which no one cared what happened to the soldiers from the other side,” You cut him off, staring hard at him, “This isn’t the war. This isn’t a soldier. This is further treatment. This is to help you get the information you need to catch a civilian bad guy, not defeat the other side.”

This time, when Nathan glared at you in annoyance, you didn’t back down.

This was your territory. This was your patient. Nathan may have more rights than you due to his tier level, but like hell, if you’d let that stop you from protecting Blue now. You were determined.

You cross your arms and stare him down easily. You had something protect now and you weren’t giving it up for anyone’s convenience.

Greg got in between the two of you, placing his hands on Nathan’s shoulders.

“If she found a safer way to do this, that’s a good thing,” He stressed to Nathan, “This would be a very big breakthrough if so, something the entire council would be happy about.”

“...Right,” Nathan frowned still.

Blue walked over to you, taking your hand with a worried look but he smiled at you.

“You Okay?”

“I’m fine,” You smiled at him, relaxing easily, “Don’t worry about me Blue.”

You could feel it again. Pride. It was rolling off both Stretch and Sans in a positive way as you pulled Blue into the circle carefully.

“Are you ready?” You asked Blue softly.

He nodded and held out his hands for you to take.

You gripped his hands softly and closed your eyes, easing your soul and listening for his, matching with his rhythm easily. After a few minutes, your connection settled and felt your souls connect fully.

_ ‘All you have to do is take me through that morning okay? Let’s start off easy. What did you do after you woke up?’ _

_ ‘I...I Went Downstairs.’ _

In a strange, slightly dimmed world, you and Blue stood to the side, holding hands as you watched Blue in his memory walk past you both. He greeted those in the kitchen, groaning at his brother’s puns as he ran out the door.

_ ‘Where did you run?’ _

_ ‘I Was Just Going Around The Block. But…’ Blue’s brow furrowed and you could feel some confusion from him, ‘I Stopped. I Went Left Instead Of Right But I Don’t Remember Why.’ _

You watch as the Blue from the past stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, pausing for a breath and about to go right but stop and look at the left as if confused. Then he broke out in a run.

_ ‘I Was Nervous. I Thought Someone Was In Trouble.’ _

_ ‘Why? Did you hear something?’ _

_ ‘No, I, I Felt It. In My Soul. Something Bad Was Going To Happen And I Had To Stop It.’ _

You watch the other Blue keep running. You held your Blue’s hands tighter, trying to give him some comfort.

He was anxious, nervous knowing what was going to happen.

_ ‘I Found The Alley. I Ran Down It.’ _

You both watched as Blue ran down the alley, coming up to the end and seeing a man there. He was wearing jeans and a plain t-shirt with OBF on it.

_ ‘I...I Don’t Remember Anything Else. After I Saw Him, I Walked Out Of The Alley And Met You. That’s All I Remember.’ _

_ ‘Just let it play out. It’s okay.’ _

Blue’s hands shook in your’s, but you held him firm, comforting him as much as you could and holding him tightly. He held you back just as tightly. You knew he was determined to get through this to possibly save other monsters.

Neither of you could have been prepared for what the man said.

“I have a message for you to carry monster,” You looked up at the man, his eyes were glowing green, and he was staring right at you and Blue as if you were really there, “The knowledge of the forest will be shared with the world. The Family will reclaim what was once theirs. We do this for the Family. The true boss level mages, those that were honored from birth with the title to rule. Our Royal Family. We do not adhere to your council and we never will. The Family will be brought back together and destruction of your kind will rain down on you as dust fills the streets in dominance. There is no angel,” He brought the gun up to his head, a wicked smile on his face, “There is only our Family.”

He pulled the trigger.

  
  


\---------------------

  
  


Both Blue and you come out of the trance, ceremony completed. For the most part anyway. You were confused. What the hell did any of that mean?

You looked up at Blue, the confusion clear in his eyes, matching your own.

“Well?” Nathan spoke first, earning glares from both Stretch and Sans.

“I...This is more complicated than we thought,” You said quietly.

You guide Blue out of the circle and to a chair to sit in.

Blue went into detail, telling them of what he saw clearly. You held onto his shoulder softly, listening but still mulling over the information yourself.

When you hear Blue repeat the message he was given, you resist giving him a questioning look.

“He Said, ‘I Have A Message For You To Carry Monster. The OBF Will Be Brought Back Together And The Destruction’.” Blue started shaking. You channel some of your magic into his shoulder, hoping to soothe him but...he was faking it? He looked up at you with a grateful smile (you could tell he wasn’t faking that at least), “ ‘And The Destruction Of Your Kind Will Rain Down On You As Dust Fills The Streets’.”

Nathan and Greg...were both fooled by this? They took down Blue’s statement, Nathan smirking and looking ecstatic about this false lead.

Greg turned to you, “I’d like you to take another week with Blue to make sure he fully bounces back from this.”

You nod quietly, keeping your face still as he pats your shoulder.

“Try to get some good rest as well,” Greg says.

Sans and Stretch escort them out of the house. When you hear the door to the basement close, you move to be in front of Blue and touch his shoulders, whispering to him.

“Why did you lie?”

“I Had To!” Blue said quickly and looked away from you.

“Why?” You try to move and get him to look at you, “Blue, come on, you can tell me anything.”

“what was that bro?” Stretch and Sans appeared next to you both in the basement. Stretch looked confused while Sans had a hard look on his face.

“I Know It’s Wrong But I Couldn’t Tell Them The Truth!” Blue said quickly.

“why?” Sans frowned as you let go of Blue’s shoulders.

“He...He Said Part Of The Story Red Told Us About,” Blue frowned, “The One About The Mage Family That Had Ruled Before Kings.”

“What?” You asked confused.

“that can’t be…” Stretch looked at Sans worried, “that can’t happen here, could it?”

“i...i don’t know. how could i know?” Sans shrugged at Stretch.

“Guys!” You wave your hands at them, “I have no idea what’s going on but the first thing I want to know,” You turn to Blue, “How did you get away with lying to a tier ten Justice and a tier ten Ingreity? If anyone is able to catch a lie, it’s those two.”

Blue looked a little nervous now, a little bead of sweat forming at the top of his skull.

“Well, Um, You See, It’s Because-”

“you humans do everything real fuckin’ stupid,” Red said, popping his head in through the door with a cig in his hand.

“What? And...that’s why it smells like smoke down here! I thought it was ‘cause of Stretch!” You point at Stretch as Red sauntered in.

“it’s the only place i can sneak a smoke without boss buggin’ me,” Red shrugged, “an’ the system humans made for mages ain’t accurate. at all. it’s somethin’ all monsters know but we don’t tell ya. fact is, based on our standards, yer lil’ top tier boys are only tier fives.”

You looked at him confused, “They...can’t really be that low.”

“welp, they are,” Red shrugged, stomping out his cig and turning to Blue, “now what’d the bastard say? word fer word blue.”

\-----------

  
  


_ “The knowledge of the forest will be shared with the world. The Family will reclaim what was once theirs. We do this for the Family. The true boss level mages, those that were honored from birth with the title to rule. Our Royal Family. We do not adhere to your council and we never will. The Family will be brought back together and destruction of your kind will rain down on you as dust fills the streets in dominance. There is no angel, there is only our Family.” _

“it sounds similar,” Red shrugged, “not exactly though. the story doesn’t exist here so that makes sense,” Red looked nervous, shifting from one foot to the other as he rubbed his neck under his collar.

“Guys, hello,” You said, getting frustrated now, “You’re keeping me out of the loop while I’m right here. What’s going on?”

“it’s-” Sans looked nervous as he spoke but Red cut him off.

“what do you think is goin’ on?” Red looked at you.

You frowned at him and looked away.

“It sounds like a rebel mage group. They’ve formed some sort of religion surrounding this...Royal mage family,” You shrugged, “It sounds like they want control over all mages, they obviously don’t respect the council at all,” You pause, thinking over the words again, “They’re separated to some extent, and they directly attack the monster’s prophecy for an angel falling into the Underground.”

“there ya go, doll, all caught up,” Red rolled his eyelights at you.

You frown at him and cross your arms. What was his deal? Red was normally pretty neutral with you, not so defensive.

“there’s more to the story of course but…” Sans said but trailed off, “it’s just really complicated.”

“I get the complicated part, I really do, but we’re endangering people’s lives by not sharing this information,” You say quickly.

Blue put his hand on your arm and looked up at you hopefully, “Please Understand Why We’re Doing This. If We Tell Them It’s Mages Attacking Monsters…”

“things can get even worse for you honey,” Stretch stepped up and touched your shoulders, “they’ll take away what little you have in the name of ‘protecting the public’. we could be looking at another set of witch trials.”

You looked up at him shocked then down at the ground.

Could it really be that bad?

Blue stood up and took your hands in his, his anxiety overwhelming you for a moment before you for yourself to relax and try to push some positive emotions towards Blue..

“We Can Tell The Queen And She’ll Be Able To Handle This Discreetly, With The Royal Guard,” Blue said, “You’ll Be Much Safer, And So Will Other Mages.”

After a moment, you nod and move, hugging him tightly around his waist. Blue didn’t hesitate, hugging you to him and looking down at you with a softness in his eyes that you didn’t see as you pressed your face into his shoulder.

\------------

You laid in your borrowed bed, unable to get the words out of your head still. The whole thing was bothering you. The story they wouldn’t tell you. This supposed Royal Family…

You turn on your side, pulling the quilt over your shoulder, quietly hoping your sister and brother were safe. Hopefully they didn’t get pulled into this Royal Family business.

With a small sigh, you close your eyes, trying to piece together your final moments with them. They were blurry and confusing. Your best guess is that you had been too close to one of the bombs.

You had built them as a distraction. They were supposed to go off safely, when you were far away and just trap the monsters.

But, something went wrong, a faulty part. You had nearly been crushed under the tree. They had tried to pull you out but it had been no use. You yelled at them to run.

They left you behind and you had put up enough of a fight to keep the monsters busy, even while being trapped under the tree.

You opened your eyes, rubbing your ribs as a phantom sting overcame you. You sit up slowly, sighing out as you did.

A knock brought you out of your thoughts.

“Oh, um, come in?” You called awkwardly.

Blue popped his head in with a small smile.

You couldn’t help your smile when you saw him, “Come on,” You chuckled as he entered your room and closed the door softly.

He sat behind you and wrapped his arms around you, pressing a skeleton kiss to your temple excitedly.

You moved and wrapped your arms and the quilt around him.

“Are You Okay?” He asked quietly.

“I’m okay Blue, just confused,” You admitted, “I know you said the Queen would handle it but...It’s still bothering me.”

Blue ran his hand over your neck and pressed another skeleton kiss to your forehead.

You could feel that special sort of confidence building up in Blue again. You blushed, knowing what’d he’d say already.

“Let Me Take Your Mind Off It,” He tilted your chin up and kissed you softly.

You closed your eyes and let Blue fill your senses and thoughts, wrapping your arms around his neck as his hands trailed over your waist to hold you close.

  
  


\-----------------

  
  


_ “Useless!” _

_ Another kick to your side had you coughing up blood. You stare at the floor, just waiting for this round of ‘questioning’ to be over already. _

_ You didn’t understand how this Justice didn’t get it. You were being honest. _

_ You don’t remember anything from when they captured you. _

_ She stomped on your back, cracking your arm in an unnatural way as your hands were tied behind you. You stayed on your knees, staring at the ground. _

_ You just had to wait this out. _

_ Everything would be okay, you just had to wait it out. _

_ Just wait it out. _

_ “How’d you make those bombs huh? Where’d you get the pieces?” She held you up by your hair and growled in your face. _

_ You didn’t even look at her. _

_ You had gotten a concussion when the tree fell on you. You didn’t remember any of it. You weren’t sure if any of it was real. Was this real? _

_ “We know you didn’t have the bomb parts on you before you entered that forest! Now tell me, where did you find those parts?!” After a minute of you not answering, she threw you on the ground. _

_ “Useless!” She yelled again as she stomped towards the door. _

_ \---------------- _

You blink your eyes open slowly, confused.

“There You Go, It’s Okay Now,” Blue was sitting in front of you while reaching out to you, looking very worried.

You were on the floor, in the corner of your, the room you were using. Shakily, you sat up and pressed yourself further in the corner. You looked at Blue and opened your mouth to speak but then looked away.

The nightmares, night terrors, had never been this bad before. You were ashamed of them. You knew you were broken, but you chose to look past it, focus on the future and try to make everyone’s day a little bit better.

But you couldn’t ignore it now.

Blue moved closer and wrapped his arms around your shoulders. You leaned on him heavily, only now noticing something wet running down your arm.

“Did You Dream Of The War?” You looked up confused to see Edge on your otherside, “I Heard You Yelling,” He explained easily and held his hand out.

You hesitated but set your wrist in his hand to look over your wound.

“It...it wasn’t the war,” You admitted quietly.

“You Reacted Rather Violently,” Edge said quietly, “Throwing Yourself Into A Corner Like This, Damaging Your Arm As Well.”

You were quiet for a moment, staring down at the wound. You must’ve cut your arm on the bedside table.

“Sorry, for the trouble,” You say quietly as Edge inspected the wound closer.

“I Get Them. Not As Often As I Use To,” Edge pulled some green magic into his hand and hovered it over your wound, “But It’s A Side Effect Still. It’s Something Everyone In This House Understands Believe It Or Not.”

You hesitate, feeling Blue rubbing your shoulder softly. After a moment, your pushed your forehead into the crook of Blue’s neck.

“I had...it was about when I was acquired,” You admit.

“What Did They Do To You?” You shudder as Blue’s words echoed Sans’ from a few days ago.

“They...I was with my sister and my brother,” You say quietly, “We were so close to the border but...there was a group of monsters chasing us down. They were close. We were apart of a bigger group but the three of us broke off as a distraction so the others could get away. We found…” Your head started to hurt and you didn’t notice, but the magic in Edge’s hand whipped around strangely, avoiding your body suddenly, “We found...something...I was crushed and…” You shudder as the memories are forced away from you.

It didn’t make sense. You were just thinking about them earlier today, weren't you? About the…?

Your head started pounding as you chased the thought.

You found something. You did something. It led you to the bombs. But what happened between separating from the group and the bombs?

You didn’t hear Edge trying to call you back, stopping his magic. Blue ran his hands over your shoulders and neck, speaking to you softly, trying to get your attention.

The only thing that dragged you out of your thoughts was Blue kissing you gently. Your mind was filled and your magic concentrated on Blue.

_ Anxiety _

_ Fear _

_ Confusion _

_ Worry _

Why was Blue feeling like this?

You pulled back from the kiss and looked up at him worriedly, gently pressing your hand to his cheek to soothe him.

“It’s okay Blue, I’m here,” you say in a quiet voice, not noticing the entirety of the skeleton family in your room now, “It’s okay, I’m okay.”

You watched tears gather in Blue’s eyes and as they fell, you wiped them away.

Sans moved, sitting next to Edge and putting a hand on your shoulder.

“hey, (y/n),” You glanced at him but then looked back to Blue worriedly.

“Sorry if I woke you up with my nightmare,” You said quietly, not looking at him and feeling guilt rise in you.

“it’s okay, i just wanted to ask you something. what were you and edge talkin’ about just now?” Sans asked, tilting his head at you.

“Huh?” You looked at him confused, “What’s that matter?”

“can you just tell me kid?” Sans asked, his smile looking strained.

“He...Edge was saying that the house was used to night terrors…” You looked away nervously.

You could feel it rise inside of you again. You were missing, something an important piece. Did you forget something?

“What is…?” You press a hand to your temple in pain.

Blue quickly jumped into action, picking you up and bringing you to the bed and pulling you close to his chest.

“It’s Okay, Just Relax And Don’t Worry About It,” He said quickly, running his hand through your hair while the other held your side, keeping you tight to him.

“It’s Going To Be Okay…”

You held onto him tightly, forcing the memories away instead of dragging them closer.

“I’m okay Blue,” You say quietly into his shoulder, “Really, I’m okay.”

The light turned on in the room and Red, with Sans beside him, walked over to the bed.

“i gotta look for somethin’ doll,” Red said, looking tense, “jus’ stay still okay?”

You nod into Blue’s shoulder, trying to comfort him and focus on him rather than this nagging feeling that was threatening to eat you up.

\-------------

Red stared at his ceiling, frowning as he lounged on his bed. This was so fucked and they all knew it. He thought about the fable he had drunkenly told everyone when they all got drunk one night, one night long before you had come around.

A story. That’s all it was. A hellish story that was told to kids in his universe to keep ‘em quiet and silently pick up EXP when they could without risking themselves.

A story about a mage family. A family of seven that almost destroyed everything. They wanted to rule everything and everyone. They wanted every ounce of magic because they thought because they were practically gods, it was what they deserved.

A story that ended in tragedy when the only member of the family to help the enslaved monsters was killed in front of them all, plummeting their HoPe to nothing. The only monster that could kill the rest of the family was the one with the most EXP. The one that had the most LoVe for that mage in particular.

That monster had quietly picked up EXP and LoVe with the help of that mage, getting that monster and others ready to rebel against the family and take them down once and for all.

The monster had fallen down after, giving the name of King over to the king before their own.

Red sighed out, his fingers searching out his jacket thrown out next to him to grab his cigs and a lighter. 

It had just been a story. One that not many knew other than Fell monsters. He knew no one would blab about that tale. Not many even told it to their kids anymore and kids knew damn well, even now, not to give away information for free.

So, were they back? Could that happen in this ‘alpha’ universe as they’ve been calling it?

How many of them were going to die because of this?

He was about to light his cig when he heard you scream out down the hall. He sighed and lit his cig anyways, knowing Blue would go to help you. You were safe here, it’s not like it was anything to worry about.

The screams died down when he was halfway through smoking his cig.

Night terrors weren’t anything new in this house. He had them. Sans, Stretch, Boss, hell, even Blue had ‘em sometimes. Everyone knew the drill. Whoever it was, their brother would help them.

Crowding a monster after a night terror ain’t exactly the most relaxing thing ever.

“SANS!”

Red nearly jumped, turning towards his door. That was boss, yellin’ his name. Red threw out his cig and shortcut out of his room, landing in front of your open door.

He went in, noting that Sans and Stretch, and hell, even Papyrus was following him in.

Your eyes were glowing, but not their natural magic color. They were flickering between green, dark blue, and purple. You were in Blue’s lap, completely limp, your body emitting the colors from your neck, head, and chest.

They all heard it, your soul cracking resounded loudly and they all saw it. A crack starting from the middle appearing. It filled with red, determination, healing itself as you tried to push through whatever this was. Red wouldn’t admit it, but he was terrified when he saw it crack again, only to refill itself with determination and force itself to keep going.

Blue was calling your name but it was like you couldn’t hear anything. He tried reaching out to you with his magic but the swirling purple and dark blue pushed it away. Blue was desperate, tilting your chin up and kissing you.

Your eyes closed and the magic stopped, Blue’s own magic was allowed to run over you and soothe your damaged soul.

You were pulled out of whatever just happened and you looked up at Blue confused and worried with your normal, not glowing eyes. Red breathed out in relief. What the hell had that been?

He listened to how you talked to Blue worriedly. Sans walked over to you and kneeled down, touching your shoulder.

“hey, (y/n),” Fuck, he didn’t like it when even Classic got jittery like this. He wasn’t even trying to hide how he was feeling from you.

“Sorry if I woke you up with my nightmare,” Red listened to you as you spoke. You still sounded like you at least but, it didn’t sound quite right either.

“it’s okay, i just wanted to ask you something. what were you and edge talkin’ about just now?” Sans asked, tilting his head at you. Red could tell he was trying to be easy about this. He didn’t want to see you do whatever the hell that was again either.

“Huh?” You looked confused, “What’s that matter?”

“can you just tell me kid?” Sans asked, his smile looking strained.

“He...Edge was saying that the house was used to night terrors…” You looked away nervously.

It started again. You shut your eyes tightly and pressed your hand to your temple. The magic smoke started to pour out of you again, though not as strong this time. Red hated how helpless he felt when he saw it rise and curl around your head.

Red lost his eye lights as Blue quickly jumped into action, picking you up and bringing into your bed.

“It’s Okay, Just Relax And Don’t Worry About It,” He said quickly, running his hand through your hair while the other held your side, keeping you tight to him. He was doing his best to keep you from going into it again.

“It’s Going To Be Okay…”

You held onto him tightly as Red watched, the magic wisps slowly clearing again.

You said something to Blue but he ignored it as he moved and turned on the light in the room. He motioned for Sans to follow him over to the bed.

“i gotta look for somethin’ doll,” Red said, trying to sound relaxed for your sake, “jus’ stay still okay?”

You nod into Blue’s shoulder, so focused on Blue you didn’t notice anything else. Stretch sat next to his brother, worriedly rubbing your shoulder.

Red sat on the other side of Blue and gently pushed your hair to the side. He looked along your hairline, seeing...many scars. How many times did you get your head knocked around? There were many cuts hidden on your scalp. He separated your hair, continuing with his thorough search. He finally found what he was looking for. It was a scar, Red wouldn’t have been able to see it if it weren’t still faintly glowing, giving off that dark blue and purple magic. On the back of your head was a sigil, one he knew was from the mages of his universe.

He motioned to Sans, who took a quiet picture of it on his phone.

“get ‘er ta sleep,” He muttered over to Stretch, still glaring down at the sigil.

Stretch hesitated but set his hand on the back of your neck and rubbed their softly, his hand glowing with soft green magic. The magic in the sigil flared for a moment, but then went completely out as you fell asleep.

Red waited until you were completely relaxed against Blue to shift closer and move more of your hair out of the way.

“What Is It?” Edge said from behind him.

“Is She Okay?” Papyrus spoke quietly.

“she’s fine, someone’s jus’ trying to hide somethin’,” Red said leaning back, “take a look boss.”

Edge peered closely at the sigil and frowned.

“That Is Intricate...Two Magics Working As One, How Old Do You Think It Is?”

“at least two years,” Red said with a frown.

“What Is It?” Blue asked, rubbing his tears off his face.

“it’s a sigil, made by mages from our universe,” Red frowned and rubbed his forehead, “when we were on the surface, some mages would use this kind of magic against other mages. make ‘em forget their spells and how to use their magic. with her numbers she should be able to fight it off but…”

“Fighting Off Two Mages’ Magic Like This Is Nearly Impossible To Do,” Edge said seriously.

“so, we just erase it or something right?” Stretch said, looking between the two.

“It’s Not That Simple. Even With It Being So Old, It Will Still Hold Its Place. Someone Doesn’t Want Her To Remember Something Specific. The Magic Will Stay Even If The Mark Is Gone,” Edge crossed his arms.

“What Can We Do Then?” Papyrus asked, watching his new friend worriedly.

“there isn’t much we can do. we could try to overload it but with it bein’ on the back of ‘er head it ain’t really an option,” Red frowned, letting go of your hair to let it settle.

“What Would...Overloading It Mean?” Blue asked, rubbing your hair back in place.

“it could cause an explosion, or something akin to electricity and fry her,” Red frowned, “there’s no way to get this off without some kinda damage. only good news is that she probably won’t remember any of this tomorrow. depending on how powerful it is, she might not remember any of today.”

“Red Is Right Unfortunately, The Only Way For It To Be Safe Would Be For One Of The Mages That Put It On Her To Die Or Release The Magic Willingly,” Edge looked away with a sigh, “What A Mess.”

“There Has To Be Something We Can Do,” Blue said hopefully.

“sorry, baby blue,” Red laid back on the bed, resting his head on his arms under him, “there ain’t shit we can do without hurtin’ her bad.”

Edge was quiet as he moved to sit next to Stretch. He gently took your wrist and pulled you arm away from Blue so he could finish healing your wound you had gotten during your night terror.

After a few minutes, Edge raised his brow.

“This Isn’t Normal Either,” He frowned, “She Isn’t Healing.”

“what do you mean she isn’t healing?” Sans frowned, walking around to Edge.

“no, he’s right, she’s taking in the magic but she’s not healing at all,” Stretch gently touched your upper arm.

“why?” Sans frowned and pinched his nasal bridge.

“I’ll Go Get The First Aid Kit,” Papyrus said, walking out of the room.

“what’s wrong with you kiddo?” Sans frowned as he looked over you.

Red shifted on the bed, doing his best to stay calm. But he knew everyone was worried about you. He was worried about you. What the hell had you gotten yourself into? Memory locking sigils?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously! I'm totally insecure about this chapter and wasn't sure about posting it. I worked eight hours in total on it. I really need some SERIOUS critical reviews from you guys if you don't mind taking the time out of your day for it. Thank you!


	7. Constrictors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's a Constrictor Sigil?

When you wake up from a dreamless sleep, you don’t move. You can’t really move at all. You recognize Blue’s nightshirt in front of you. He’s holding you tightly to him, an arm curled protectively around your waist and his hand resting on your back, gripping into your shirt. One of his legs is thrown over both of yours.   
You close your eyes and reach out to Blue with your magic.

**Fear.**

You open your eyes again and try to look up but Blue has your head tucked under his chin. He must be having a nightmare. You curl an arm around him and manage to push some positive feelings to him, relaxing with him as he eases into a more comfortable sleep.

His grip on you isn’t as tight and his position wasn’t as rigid, but you make no move to get out of bed.

You’re so exhausted that using even that small amount of magic leaves you wanting to sleep all day. You try to piece together why but...your mind is so foggy. You remember doing the Memory Link with Blue and finding out that cryptic message. It was hard to piece together anything that happened after lunch though.

Maybe the Memory Link took more out of you than you thought?

Settling on that, you close your eyes once again, trying to will yourself back to sleep.

\-----------

_You sat at a desk, staring at an ancient monitor connected to it’s companion of a desktop. The symbols were strange. Not letters but some kind of code?_

_You couldn’t make sense of them. Your brother and sister were rushing around behind you in the concrete room, looking for anything useful while you stared at the screen. This was too familiar._

_Touching the back of your head, you pull your hand in front of your face to see it covered in blood. When had you gotten hurt? Is that why you were sitting here rather than helping your siblings in your attempt to escape?_

_There’s a jumble of voices, so quiet you don’t notice it at first. When you do, you stare at a dark corner, peering into the shadows. Your sister calls your name and you jump, looking up at her worried eyes before leaning back further into the chair. Your sister pressed some cloth to the back of your head. You reach to hold it there yourself while she keeps looking._

_You look around slowly, taking in the concrete walls lined with steel. Where were you? There were black markings on the wall, screaming importance but unintelligible. Everytime you focused on one mysterious symbol, the rest shifted in another meaningless scrawl. Only after resigning to the fact that you weren’t able to piece it together, did you notice the body under the message. It was beyond decayed but you could tell it was male. It looked like he had blown his brains out._

_No, his throat was cut?_

_But there was a rope hanging above him as well…_

_It didn’t matter, it wasn’t the first body you had seen and you knew in your soul it wouldn’t be the last. Without knowing exactly why, you had a thought run through your head though you couldn’t tell if it was your own or not._

_‘He already served his purpose.’_

_Defeated and with a stinging head, you stare at the screen again, willing the symbols to make some sense. When you looked at these symbols, they stayed constant unlike those one the wall._

_After blinking a few times, they formed words._

<strike> **If it’s so much easier to forget, then forget. The rest of the world did.** </strike>

\--------------

You wake up, shuddering and shaking in Blue’s arms. You could feel some sweat beading up at the back of your neck and dripping down as you look up at him. Adrenaline spikes through you but you don’t know what to say.

Blue’s eye lights wander over your face worriedly, his hand brushing back through your sweaty hair.

“It’s Okay,” He says quietly, “It’s Just A Bad Dream.”

After a moment, you nod but relax only a fraction. Your body ached as if you had run a marathon.

“Blue, I...I’m sorry about…” You start but you can’t find your words.

How could you be sorry for being broken? You knew it didn’t make sense but you still felt it.

Blue surprised you, planting a gentle skeleton kiss on your forehead.

“Don’t Be,” He smiled down at you softly.

You can’t help but feel relieved and allow your eyes to flutter close as you feel nothing more than pure adoration coming from Blue. You curl closer to him and hug him tightly as he holds you.

“Thank you,” You say softly in his chest.

Blue chuckles softly and runs his hand over your back gently.

“You Don’t Need To Thank Me Either,” He says easily. After a quiet moment of simply enjoying holding each other, Blue speaks again, “I’m Going To Go Run A Bath For You. I Think You Could Use Some Time To Relax After…”

“Yeah, I uh...I guess the Memory Link took more out of me than I thought,” You say quietly and shake your head.

You completely miss the guilty look that passes over Blue’s face. They all agreed it’d be safer to not tell you what happened. Blue pulls away from you with a smile back on his face. He kisses your cheek and tells you to relax while he gets a bath ready for you.

After Blue walks out of the room, you curl over on your side, pulling the quilt up to your chin. You make yourself as small as you can and stare out your window. The sun was high in the sky already. You try to shake off this feeling of dread hanging on your shoulders.

It felt like things were going to change. You hadn’t had this feeling since…

Since monsters emerged from Ebott.

Did that mean something good would happen? Only for things to get bad later? Or were you just overthinking it this time?

You truly hope you’re simply overthinking it.

Sometimes no change was better than a bad change.

\----------

Blue walked out of your room and shut the door softly. With a soft sigh, he turned and faced the other skeletons in the hallway. Stretch was leaning on the wall next to your door, Papyrus was worrying part of his scarf between his hands, and Red was leaning on the wall beside Papyrus.

“She Woke Up,” Blue said softly, walking to the bathroom just a little down the hall.

“she remember anything?” Red didn’t hesitate to ask, following Blue like the other two skeletons.

“Better Question, Is She Feeling Okay?” Papyrus asked in a quiet tone, feeling nervous for his friend.

“She Doesn’t Remember...That,” Blue admitted, going in the bathroom and turning on the facut to the tub, “It Seems That She Thinks She’s Feeling Bad Because She Overexerted Herself With The Memory Link.”

“so, then she doesn’t realize she’s been out for two days then,” Stretch filled in quietly.

Blue shook his head, tossing in some bubble bath soap for you.

“if she asks about it, we have to tell her it was the memory link. if yer right about how tired she is, she shouldn’t be able to see through the lie if yer convincin’ enough blue,” Red said, leaning on the door frame.

“It Doesn’t Feel Right That We Aren’t Telling Her,” Papyrus said, looking off to the side.

“i know,” Stretch said, staring down at the floor, “but it’s what’s safest for her right now. we’ll find some way to get the sigil off her, but until then the best thing we can do is act like we always do.”

Red crossed his arms and tapped his fingers over the sleeve of his jacket.

This wasn’t adding up. Why would someone put that on you? Boss said the sigil started to react when you were talking about your acquisition. You couldn’t have been holding war information at that point, so what was so important that someone sealed it in your head?

The sigil itself didn’t make sense. It was an oversimplified version of what he had seen in his universe, but created by two, very powerful mages. He wouldn’t be surprised if it had been at least two tier sevens.

What knowledge could a tier six mage possibly have that was so damn important?

Humans had their tier system done in a very stupid way. From what Red and the others could tell, it’s measured based on abilities that the state deemed useful rather than a mage’s collective magic. Monsters naturally had a system in place and ingrained in them. Monster’s tier system was a thing of magic nature, something already in place and they didn’t have to figure out. A simple check would tell them someone’s tier level, monster or mage.

Humans probably won’t figure it out for another ten years though, at least, Red bets.   
But even your numbers didn’t make sense. Your HP was so high for a measly tier six green mage, your magic reserves were impressive, and your execution and ability to pick up on ‘specialities’ as you called them was almost damn scary.

Everything pointed to you being a boss mage yet you were a tier six? Powerful, sure. Your numbers pointed to you training your magic for years but Red found himself doubting that. Even a monster could only get so far with training. Boss monsters were naturally born, no one could be trained into being one.

Yet, your numbers and abilities supported the idea of being a boss tier but your actual tier was just below that.

Red lost his eye lights as he thought over the nonsensical data.

“What Is It?” Blue looked over at Red.

Red’s eye lights flickered back in his sockets and he looked to his side, frowning when he realized Stretch and Papyrus had left while he zoned out.

“nothin’ blue, don’t worry about it,” Red shrugged and took a shortcut, leaving a frustrated Blue in the bathroom.

\-----------

Blue entered your room without knocking and could only smile when he saw you curled up in the spot he had been laying in before, your face pressed in his pillow. He chuckled softly and walked over to you. He brushed his hand through your hair. When you looked up at him with sleepy eyes and a soft but incredibly warm smile, he felt his soul skip a beat.

He was so lucky to have met you.

“Blue? That’s so cute,” You said softly, lighting up more.

“Huh?” Blue looked at you confused.

“Your eye lights, they changed into little inverted hearts,” You told him, making his cheeks turn blue.

“Oh, That’s Um-” Blue looked away from you, trying to control the magic pooling at his cheeks.

“I love them,” Blue looked back at you with a surprised look.

Then, for the first time in your short relationship, you leaned up and kissed Blue gently. He sighed out softly, feeling all his worries from before melt away with your kiss. He wrapped his arms around your small waist, leaning closer to you.

Before he knew it, he was straddling you on the bed, his hands tangling your hair as he kissed you deeper than he had before, his tongue softly moving with yours. Your arms were around his neck and your hands softly rubbing at his back. Blue could’ve dusted in this moment and been happy.

All too soon, you pulled back, softly gasping to refill your lungs with much needed air. Blue found he couldn’t stay away. He placed soft kisses on your cheek and jaw before slowly kissing at your neck. He kept one hand in your hair while his other hand softly gripped your shoulder. He kissed over your slender neck, finding himself lost in your soft skin as he trailed down to your collarbone and back up again. Without much of a thought, he nipped at your sensitive skin and blushed brightly when you gasped and let out a small noise.

Blue sat up just enough to get a look at your blushing face. You were a little embarrassed, he could see that. But you had this soft smile on your face.

He couldn’t help but smile back and leaned to steal another of your precious kisses away.

\----------

The bath was borderline luxurious. The bathtub itself was deep, allowing you to easily sink into the hot water. Bubbles tickled your cheeks as you sunk in even deeper, allowing only your face above your nose to stay out of the water.

Your mind was attempting to put together a timeline of what happened, but everything after the Memory Link was a blur.

Had you passed out?

That would explain why Blue was holding you like that.

The very thought of Blue had you blushing, remembering what happened in your bed mere moments ago.

Attempting to summon up more energy, you quickly scrub your hair with shampoo and conditioner. You slowed yourself as you spread body wash over yourself.

You had a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach. It felt like a bad idea to be left alone with your thoughts right now.

As you got out of the bath and stepped in front of the large mirror, you chance a look over your scarred body. The back of your shoulder had a gnarly exit wound from when you had been shot during the war. Bits of your back was scarred from fragments of a grenade that had gone off near you. Those scars were nothing compared to the deep marks that slashed over you back. When you had been acquired, you told them the truth. You didn’t remember anything really. They hadn’t believed you and a Justice had been so frustrated, they took a whip to your back.

That had been the first time you felt true hatred.

You traced the marks with your eyes before your eyes caught something else. A sigil at the small of your back. You had never noticed it before, you had never looked over your back in a mirror this big before.

Without thinking, you traced over it. A small circle with what looked like an hourglass in the middle. Someone had put this on you? Marked you in some way? You didn’t recognize it at all. Your fingers traced over it again, and again, and again.

Constrictor

A sigil for constriction? As you realized this the sigil started to glow then weaken. It pulsed with magic you recognized as your brother’s and sister’s magic. Integrity and Perseverance. They did this? But why?

When?

Frowning in confusion, you hurriedly put on your clothes, your beige pants and a tanktop. You didn’t even bother with your sweatshirt to cover your scars as you move quickly out of the room.

You ran downstairs quickly, ignoring the strange looks from the skeletons as you went into the library.

Hearing Blue call your name, you only motion him to follow you into the library. You pick up one of the books, pushing away the angered energies you felt from it as you flipped through the book, looking for a particular section you had only skimmed since it hadn’t been important to Blue’s treatment.

“What’s Wrong?” Blue asked, standing beside you.

“I found something weird on me,” You say to him, still looking, “A sigil.”

Guilt

You look at Blue confused when his emotion registered within you.

“Blue?”

“We...Saw It The Other Night, We Thought It Would Be Safer To Not Tell You,” He tried to explain.

You’re surprised but shake your head, “I’m not angry at you Blue, don’t worry about it.”

But you were frustrated.

You finally find it in the book. The same sigil that’s on your lower back.

Constrictor- Used on Mages who misuse their magic in times of war or peace…

“But why…?”   
Blue looked over your shoulder, confused at the sigil you were looking at. That’s not what Red had said it was anyways.

“I don’t understand, why would they put this on me? When?” You put the book down and start pacing in front of the window, Blue watching you helplessly as you contemplated, “My brother and sister, I know that’s their magic in the sigil so why would they do that? When?”

“what’s going on?” Sans and Stretch peeked their heads into the room.

Blue motioned them forward and pointed to the sigil you had shown him, “She Found This Sigil On Her.”

Stretch stared at it for a moment, frowning, “i’m gonna grab red and edge.”

“kid, maybe you should calm down for a minute. pacing isn’t going to help,” Sans said, taking a step towards you.

“I just don’t understand Sans,” You say, looking at him, stopping in front of the window now, “It doesn’t make any sense. My brother and sister couldn’t have known about that sigil. We didn’t understand how to use any of our magic when we were on the run,” You try to slow down and explain more accurately but you felt like your head would explode, “There’s so many things that just don’t make any damn sense. I’ve thought about it for two years now and...Why would they put something like that on me? I should remember it.”

“i know, kid,” Sans said as you pressed your hands to your temples, looking worried for you as Blue stepped next to him.

“None of it ever made sense. Why did they bother following us to acquire us? We weren’t even that strong,” You continue pacing, “The interrogation after didn’t make sense. It was days! They did everything they could to force me to remember but I got concussed from the tree falling on me so...maybe that’s why I can’t remember it but why would they put it on me in the first place?”

“A TREE FELL ON YOU?” Blue said in his natural tone, shocked.

“A bomb went off before it was supposed to,” You say.

“a bomb?” Red shouted as he entered the room with his brother and Stretch.

“I can’t make sense of it either Red!” You admit, running your hands through your still wet hair.

“Tell Us From The Beginning,” Edge said, standing beside Blue, “Stretch Told Us About The Sigil You Found On You.”

“I just can’t figure out when they would have put it on me! My brother and sister, it’s their magic in it,” You start to ramble as you pace but Edge cuts you off.

“From The Beginning,” He says seriously.

“We were running from the monsters sent to acquire us. My brother, my sister, and I were in a group of mages and we were running to the border,” You say, pacing more quickly now, “We were running but the monsters were getting too close so we broke off from the group to distract them-”

“how were you going to distract them if you didn’t know any magic?” Sans asked.

“We didn’t know how to channel our magic into actions but we could sorta, it was like setting off fireworks, we would just reach to the sky and send off bursts of magic. It didn’t do anything but we figured it would have sent them our way. I can’t remember anything between then and setting up the bombs in the trees. But we didn’t have parts for bombs or know how to set them up so how did we have them?!” You were getting so frustrated, not realizing as magic started to rise from the back of your head and your lower back.

Blue said your name and tried to step forward but Red grabbed him by his shoulder and shook his head.

“think about it, ya had to get ‘em from somewhere,” Red pushed you.

“I don’t know! That’s what doesn’t make any sense. I know I was concussed but I should remember something from then!” You feel your own magic run over you in your frustration, curling around your fingers as you paced, reacting in a way it never had before but you didn’t notice.

“honey,” Stretch called to you, “maybe you should try to relax. pushing yourself like this after you just woke up won’t be any good for you.”

“I can’t just not think about this. It was my own brother and sister that did this. They sealed away a part of my magic. A part of me. I don’t understand how or why or even when!” You start to shake, “It’s on a spot where the tree had fallen on me, there’s no way they would’ve been able to put it in that spot unless they did it beforehand.”

“why’s that?” Stretch asked, not understanding.

He felt guilty when the dark blue and purple magic swirled around you, trying to force you to forget but in your anger, in your determination, you went forward anyways.

“A sigil has to be drawn or cut on the skin first, then magic filtered into it. Trying to make a sigil without that guide is practically impossible. Not even a tier ten would be able to do it unless they had years of practice,” You answer back, not even thinking about where you had gained this information.

“Think About It, What Are The Gains Of Constricting Your Magic?” Edge asked.

“What would be to gain? The government not getting to use all of it?” You’re frustrated at the thought, “But we didn’t know I would get trapped under a tree and left behind. They couldn’t have done it before.”

“they could’ve done it without ya noticin’. they could’ve been plannin’ on leavin’ ya behind,” Red said in a dark tone.

You turn and glare at him, “Have you ever thought about leaving Edge behind?”

He bristled at that.

“what the hell kinda question is that?” He growled at you.

“My family never would’ve left me behind like that unless they had to,” You yelled at him now, “They were my older brother and sister,” Angry tears built up at your eyes, “They only left because I pushed them away, because I forced them to.”

“yeah and how’d ya do that under a tree!?” Red shouted back, stepping in front of the others, forcing all your attention on him.

“Like this!”

Your anger and frustration rolled over you in waves. You just wanted them to understand, you wanted to understand. You raised your hand and your magic snapped into place as a shield was formed in front of Red and pushed him harmlessly backwards away from you.

You screamed and dropped to the ground, writhing as pain surrounded you. The sigil on your back broke, dark blue and purple magic filtering out steadily and disappearing into the air. The pain at the back of your head was enormous, as if someone was trying to crush your head.

The skeletons move to help you. Sans and Stretch on one side, Edge and even Red rushed to your other side as Blue hurriedly picked you up in his arms, trying everything to comfort you.

A sudden burst of green magic filled the room, surrounding you and the skeletons in a sudden bright emerald light that slowly shifted into gold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4007 words! Not as long but I had to split up the chapter since it was getting too long.
> 
> Hey, so after not posting anything for two months and not updating this for nearly a year, I thought I'd come back!
> 
> Not sure for how long this time honestly.
> 
> Things are rough and as much as I'd love to check out and just work on my writing, I'm struggling to deal with my mental health and the world exploding in this pandemic. I live in America so uh, not saying shit isn't going down in other countries but, oh damn, shit really sucks in the political climate here in the grand ole' USA right now. Jobs are hard to find and its hard to want to stay at them when some of the factories I've been working in do not care about safety protocols concerning COVID-19, it's even harder to keep going in. I don't have a degree in anything and I can't really work from home in my area because I don't have any degrees. I've thought about setting up a patreon or kofi but times are hard enough and I just want people to enjoy my work ya know? And I don't think it's something people would pay for.
> 
> Sorry for that vent, things are just stressful as all hell. I hope you guys stay determined and enjoy a few moments of peace and chaos that has nothing to do with the real world!


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